


Teach Your Children Well

by CharDaMa



Category: Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms, Naruto
Genre: Anko quit laughing, BAMF Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto), Cu Chulainn is a good guard dog, EMIYA and Cu might break the village, Eat crap Danzo, Emiya is a good mom- i mean cook, Female Uchiha Sasuke, Fix-It of Sorts, Hiruzen has something planned for ya'll, Kakashi is a bit impressed, Konoha bashing, Multi, You too Kakashi, elders are dicks, might
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-31
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-03-12 01:55:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 35,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13537206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CharDaMa/pseuds/CharDaMa
Summary: EMIYA and Cu Chulainn have been summoned in the era of shinobi. It was not their intention to get rounded up in things but they'd be damned if they were just going to sit and watch this bullshit go down.Or somehow, as civilians, they managed to adopt and teach a few kids and house a few ANBU members.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Ah, my first Fate fanfic. I just wanted to do this because to me, there are not many Fate crossover fics or regular fics that aren't romance. I just wrote this to experiment. Please Read and Review

 

**Prologue**

"Ah, there's that kid again…"

He looks down toward the lit up streets. From the roof, they had a good look of the village. The streets were lit up in colorful lights while music played and people were singing and playing along.

Except that one kid.

The kid had situated himself far away from most of the festive activity. Mostly so most of the villagers would not see him and he could watch without getting hurt or involved.

"Seriously, he's just a kid," fingers went to scratch the back of his neck.

"You talk as if you want to do something about it." The other speaks up.

Red eyes narrow at him, "Bastard. Anyway, the good person in me is telling me to help 'im out."

"How do you propose we do that?"

"Listen bastard, drop the act. You are just as concerned as I."

Red eyes went back to the kid before standing. "We best get a move on before some drunks seek 'im out like they do every year."

* * *

Naruto pouts. It was like this every year. They always had a festival on his birthday but he was never able to come out and celebrate it. He didn't get it!

At least Hokage-jiji sometimes let him sit in his office whenever this happened. Naruto would look through the Hokage's window at the festival down below as him and the Hokage would share sweets as the man tried to finish up his paperwork. When the man was done he would always give Naruto a present and walk him back to the orphanage before retiring.

He enjoyed time with his Hokage-jiji, especially this time of year. However, he would always get kicked out the orphanage early for some reason and would always have to climb through the window to get in.

He sighs, his hold on the frog plushie tightening. He should go back, it was cold this time of year- well almost. Everyone should be sleep or away in the orphanage so he should be able to sneak back inside. Then there were the people with the white masks that always followed him.

He lets out another sight, this time he was able to see his breath.

He turns around and starts to walk down one of the streets that were not lit up.

He guess it is a good thing that he gets kicked out so much because he has a well put map of this side of the village in his head. It was easy to maneuver through the night. He knew all the shortcuts and dead ends. He also knew the fastest way to get to the orphanage, he would have to circle around it in order to climb up the back window but that was ok.

He takes a turn toward another dimly lit street, happy that he was not walking through complete darkness. He had done this plenty of times but because of the festival nearly all the streets had some kind of light on.

In the corner of his sight he sees something on a roof move. He does not make much of a reaction because he is used to the people with the masks on following him. It was not something new or to get excited over.

It is new when one of them drops down behind him and he hears a shriek of a man. Naruto whirls around, eyes wide and all. He barely has time to make a noise as the person who let out the shriek is kicked away from him.

Naruto does not have the time to move because someone crouches down in front of him. The child catches red eyes before the stranger turns to where the other was kicked and says something. Naruto doesn't understand what he is saying. Apparently, the other person that did the kick did and answered him. The man turns back around to him.

Now, the only reason he doesn't run for it is because he has never seen a person kick another person that hard and far. It was kind of cool how it happened. Maybe these two were shinobi, they were not wearing white masks like the ones that followed him. Plus, shinobi tended not to mess with him, they would just ignore him and continue with their days. It was just the civilians he needed to look out for.

"Yo." The man greets. He speaks funny and pronounced it weird too. His red eyes look Naruto over. In the dim light he can tell the man has long hair and maybe it was a shade of blue, Naruto could not tell.

The blue man smiles and Naruto can see the pointed teeth.

"Don't look at him like that, you'll scare him away guard dog." The other man speaks up. Naruto can see a glimpse of white hair and dark skin.

"What-" The blue haired one's eyes narrowed before he growled, "You know I can't understand when you talk that fast."

"Good." The other says while walking up to them. The other man in front of Naruto grumbles out something the boy doesn't understand.

Naruto blinks, "What just happened?"

The dark skin man looks him over, "Some guy was following you. So we did you a favor."

The blue haired one stands up and Naruto takes a step back. It was a bit uncomfortable being around tall people like them.

"Why?"

White hair raises an eyebrow, "A grown man stalking a child. Does not that seem suspicious?"

Naruto blinks, no one has ever helped him before. Why would two complete strangers- who weren't dressed as shinobi help him?

Seriously, they weren't even in festival attire. The blue haired one was in a hoodie and what looked like sweatpants. The white haired one was in a simple sweatshirt and pants.

The blue haired one says something in that weird way of his again and the other gave a one shouldered shrugged.

"What ya name kid?" The blue haired one asks while scratching his head.

"Uzumaki Naruto!" He shouts. The blue haired one snorts and the white haired one shakes his head.

"My name is Emiya Shirou."

"Name's Cu Chulainn, call me Cu."


	2. Chapter 1

 

* * *

**Chapter 1**

Emiya Shirou, mostly known as Archer if any stranger were to ask his name, is a heroic spirit. To be more specific, a Counter Guardian.

Does he like being a Counter Guardian? No, it makes him do things that he wishes he had not. He'd rather be a regular heroic spirit- or human- but that is besides the point.

The point is he has been summoned but he has no master. Well, he does have a master but his master is not in the estate he was summoned in.

The house he was summoned in was so empty, there weren't any signs of life in it. He could tell it was an estate of some sort because it had a dojo and many other rooms. It reminded him of his old home.

Let us move on.

In all honesty, his first thought was that his master most of died during the summoning. Which meant that he had only a few days before he would disappear without a trace.

That was not the case.

One week later and he was still alive and in perfect health. There was no sign of fatigue, there was no pain. He felt like he could fight an army if needed.

Strange.

After spending so much time in his spirit form he materialized and began to explore.

The house was dusty- of course. Most of the rooms were empty. The kitchen was in good condition and he found out that the electricity and water pressure still worked.

Huh.

He explores more.

The dojo is the same as most of the rooms, covered in a layer of dust. There is a closet filled with weapons. Some of them are practice swords made of wood. There are also various throwing knives. At the back of the closet, he finds what looks like a training dummy.

He leaves the dojo to explore the west side of the estate.

The west side of the estate is more furnished. There are two bedrooms. One is obviously meant for a child and the other is a master bedroom. He doesn't linger too long in either of them.

The last door leads down towards a basement. Before Shirou opens it he sees what looks like ink marking on the door. He tries to open the door and it doesn't budge at all.

Alright, we'll leave that one for another time.

He spends the next few days cleaning because come on he doesn't care if he is the only one here, this place is filthy and needs to look like someone lives in it. Not only that, it's a habit for him.

The next few days after are spent exploring the area around the estate. The estate is surrounded by trees, in a nice secluded area. There is a pond nearby and what looks like what was supposed to be a garden. There was also a shed, which had similar ink marking like the door to the basement did.

It doesn't open.

The next day is spent actually searching the house and taking inventory. No groceries, there are few clothes in the two bedrooms, and the dojo is filled with dull weapons. That's it.

By then two weeks have gone by since he has been summoned. So he decides to go beyond the small forest surrounding the estate. It doesn't take long since he traveled in spirit form. He managed to travel quickly and break through the trees without being noticed.

To see a village.

Apparently, he and the estate was still in village limits. The forests seemed common in this village and it was bigger than he thought. He hums to himself.

He spends the day in spirit form, waking the streets and trying to get familiar with the place. He also keeps a lookout for any more like him, just in case. He doesn't know if there are more servants out there or if this was an accidental summon but he keeps his guard up.

It was a thriving village, lots of people. However, something had clearly happened. Some buildings were destroyed and there were many tents set up. Some families were in said tents.

He mostly observes. He learns that there has been a war a not too long ago. The village looks like it was fresh out of destruction, so Shiro guesses that it happened only weeks ago.

He also takes notice of the different 'social classes'. There were the people with headbands and the people without headbands. The people with headbands were known as shinobi, the people without headbands were regular civilians.

Emiya hums, as he listens to a few conversations. Shinobis, ninjas, were basically the equivalent to soldiers of the villages. Well, in his mind he thinks they are mercenaries. They are being paid to go on various missions and some are even being paid to kill and assassinate. He saw it no other way in his mind. They were killers, that's just it.

There is also a head of the village. They refer to them as the 'Hokage', the god of shinobi. Emiya isn't sure if the man is an actual god but he makes a mental note of it.

He stays in the village a little while longer, gathering information. He makes a mental map in his head. Take note of which shops were what. He found out what the currency was like and how people traded.

He tries to think of some sort of way where he could interact. He can materialize clothes in his person so that was one thing down. Even though he is a spirit he would like to eat because believe it or not he can gather some mana from eating (even though it is very little). Not only that he misses the presence of food and being able to cook. It should give him some sort of distraction.

But if he wanted food then he would need money. Lots of it. Then again he could probably go hunting, there were plenty of forests around.

That aside, he thinks that it should be relatively easy to interact and blend in now that he thinks about it. The village is going through a building stage. There are lots of houses and buildings missing. It was likely some people and their families were scattered as well. He should be able to weasel in and receive money or food for helping around.

Moving on.

He also needed to find out how and who summoned him. If he could find them then maybe he could find out what was going on. Normally, when summoned the servant manages to receive all the information needed about the era they're in. So far the only thing he knew about this village was the language since it was Japanese.

He materializes in the common room of the estate. Well, it probably was just a regular room but if he had furniture it would be a common room.

Keeping these things in mind he walks through the estate toward the door that leads to the basement. He wanted to get a good look at those marking that was on it. They did not look like runes he has ever seen before. They looked more like Kanji symbols and had weird artistic designs.

He makes his way there but freezes. The next second he jumps back just as the doors explode open off their hinges. He braces himself and summons his dual swords because he can feel mana coming from there.

Not a second later a blue blur is racing towards him.

* * *

That side of the estate is a mess. The bedrooms that were there are totally trashed- along with some of the bathrooms. The doors to the dojo is gone, the floor has a huge hole in it. That shed that was in the backyard isn't destroyed but it is leaning so far to the right that Emiya thinks if the wind blew the whole thing would fall over.

The lancer sits crouched on the floor, arms resting on his thighs. His spear rests in his arms and he had very few bruises compared to Emiya.

They are in the kitchen, one of few places that is not scratched. After being thrown through a wall the two came to a small stand-off. Archer chose then and there to explain the situation because there is no way he is going to try to outrun the lancer. It took Emiya a few attempts to realize that the lancer didn't speak Japanese. Therefore the archer had to go through a long list of languages before he could get a proper response. After that, he explained what he had known and that he had no master, so there wasn't a reason to fight.

Surprisingly that was enough to make him come off his fighting stance and actually listen.

So here they are now, sitting, in the kitchen. Emiya wishes that there was at least ice in the damn fridge but sadly there was none for him to use on his head. He mentally sighs.

The lancer looks down at the floor for a moment, red eyes in deep thought. Emiya has a creeping suspicion of what his true name is. There are only a few spearmen with that man's speed and strength. Given the fact he understands the Gaelic language Emiya has narrowed down his options to one.

He doesn't say the man's name because the lancer beats him to it.

"I go by Cu Chulainn. Call me whatever." The lancer throws a fanged smile his way, red eyes sharp. Archer is reminded that this man is a true heroic spirit and also a _demigod_.

"Emiya Shirou. I'm mostly called Archer when I am summoned."

"Well," Cu stands, moving his lance to rest across his shoulders, "since we're gonna be here awhile I'll call ya Shirou. Speaking of which, where is here?"

Archer frowns, he honestly didn't know. Usually upon summoning the servant would immediately gather information from the grail. However, he wasn't sure if there was a grail seeing as though he only knew the language. That was because they spoke the same language he did in the future.

"Not sure about that, I know we're somewhere in the past- it might be the future for you." In all honesty, he wasn't sure if that was correct or not. "I know we're in a village that is just fresh out of a war. I also know the language, but not the year or the exact name of the village."

Cu made a noise that sounded like a snort. "Damn," The Irishman grumbled. He scratches the nape of his neck.

"I have an idea," Archer says after taking a deep breath. His headache was finally easing. The lancer looks over at him.

"We could pretend to be civilians. This village is currently doing damage control and rebuilding. So slipping in shouldn't be too much of a problem. With as much going on they wouldn't care if the two of us helped out. If we help long enough people will probably won't be suspicious."

"Why civilians?"

"You seriously want to go in there head first with that cursed spear in a village full of fighters?"

Cu narrowed his eyes. The archer sighs. "In this village, there are civilians and people called shinobi. For some reason, the civilians seem harmless. On the other hand, these shinobi are like hired mercenaries. I also think they fought in the war and they seem to take up most of the population in the village. So if we appear as a threat…"

"Keh, say no more, but I like fighting. However, I ain't stupid enough to actually start a fight with some random person, especially people who've just been in a war," the lancer then sighed, "I could probably take 'em on, but I ain't fighting for no reason."

Emiya rolls his eyes. "Yeah, whatever." The lancer snorts and makes his spear disappear. "When do we start?"

"Tomorrow, after we fix this house," Emiya grumbles. Seriously, it was a good house. Cu rolls his eyes then disappears down the hall leading out the kitchen.

It was relatively easy to blend in. They managed to help a lot in the village, mostly helping people move around. In Emiya's case, he was dubbed the Master Chef of the soup kitchen in two days. Cu mainly helped with the heavy lifting and distributing things.

It took three weeks for the Irishman to be able to understand some phrases of the language. It took another month for him to actually get the basics down and to be able to form up his own responses, thanks to some academy teachers. Then they teach him how to read and write it as thanks for helping build the academy.

They were rather liked, surprisingly. Well, they were mostly liked by the civilians, the shinobi kept their distance (until it was time to eat, then they would all hoard around the two.)

Shirou took to gathering as much information as possible. The village's name is Konohagakure. Apparently, the previous leader of the village died and now an old one was coming back to take lead. It must have been a big blow to the village. He also hears a rumor about a demon being sealed away. He doesn't worry too much because they are indeed rumors.

Oh well…

* * *

Five Years Later

"I wonder what orphanage that kid stays at?" Cu asks after letting out a drag from the cigarette he was smoking. Emiya shrugged. How long has it been since they saved that kid in the street? Two weeks at most, he's sure of it.

Now they are out buying things- specifically groceries. They have a garden- a big one. But there is only so much they can do with fruit and vegetables. Not only that if Cu went more than two days without some type meat to eat he would probably go crazy. Emiya doesn't know why but the hound just goes around destroying trees when he doesn't get enough protein.

Huh, maybe it's a dog thing.

The Irishman sniffs, "None of these are dog are they?"

"No." Emiya quickly answers. He remembers how Cu nearly went apeshit at the mention of people eating dog. Apparently, someone had offered him some food and it turned out it was dog meat. The lancer had bolted in a matter of seconds and Shirou found him in the forest surrounded by the wrecked trees and some dead boars.

Emiya purchases the meat and waits as the cashier wraps it. Cu lets out another puff of smoke as he looks toward the streets. Emiya thanks the cashier as he is given the groceries.

"I'm taking these home to put in the fridge."

"Yeah, yeah. Go ahead, our little animal friends are on guard again."

Oh? The ones in the white masks? That meant that the blonde kid was around somewhere. Emiya hums before taking off.

Cu walks through the streets, hands in the pockets of his hoodie. He makes a few more turns, if he is correct then that orphanage should be a few minutes away…

There is a shout and he sees the orange blur before it runs into his legs. Cu doesn't give way of course but the sudden movement startles him.

"What-"

"Hide me!"

True enough it is the Uzumaki boy and Cu doesn't have time to ask why because he sees the people that were apparently chasing the kid.

"What's up?" He questions, keeping a grip on one of Naruto's arms so the boy doesn't run away. Instead, Naruto twists so he is behind him and Cu is tall and big enough for the child to hide behind him.

The people have already seen the kid though but they don't make a move at seeing the child hide behind Cu. When he doesn't get an answer he raises an eyebrow. Maybe he said it wrong?

"That demon-"  _WOW_ , "Was around my shop!" A man speaks up. Cu doesn't recognize him but he feels himself scowling.

"The hell? I'm pretty sure lots of people are around your shop."

"Yes but that thing isn't a person it's a demon!" A woman this time.

Cu feels a vein pop out his head as he flicks some ash off his cigarette. Before he can speak Uzumaki beats him to it.

"I ain't a demon!"

"Shut up scum! The Hokage should've killed you."

"Jiji wouldn't do that-" Cu places a hand over the child's mouth because honesty he wishes Shirou was here. If Shirou was here he could resolve this without throwing a person through a wall. Cu wasn't good with words and he had a very short temper when it came to these things. Seriously, what was wrong with these people treating a kid like this? And all because he was standing around a shop.

There's a black blur that drops down in between him and the other civilians. Cu recognizes it as one of those people that follow the kid around. He sees the silver hair and white armor over the dark clothes.

"Leave." The person- most likely a male orders. "Or Hokage-sama will be hearing of this."

That's enough to send them running.

Cu is still a bit pissed off though.

The person turns, the mask he's wearing looks canine-like. He tilts his head to the side and Naruto peaks from behind Cu. He recognizes that mask!

"Dog!"

"Shh, I'm not supposed to be talking to you while on duty."

"You don't talk to me off duty," Naruto pouts. The dog masks chuckles and Cu takes another drag of his cigarette. Okay, the kid knows him.

"Dog! This is the nii-san that helped me. Well, one of 'em I don't know where the other one is."

"Ah, yes, the one with the pretty long blue hair."

Cu barks out a laugh as Naruto turns red. Never in his life has he been referred to as pretty. Even if the kid was describing his hair it was still funny and a bit ironic.

"I didn't say that!"

"Maa, but I recall you saying they were both pretty. You were just specific about this one."

"I said pretty COOL hair! COOL HAIR!"

"Hah," Cu tilts his head, "Doesn't change the fact that you called my hair pretty. Thanks, kid." He pats Naruto's head. Naruto freezes at the contact and Cu sees the 'Dog' stiffen from the corner of his eye.

Naruto seems to blink before scratching the back of his head, suddenly bashful. "Yea- Yeah, whatever."

"I have to go back on duty. Later Naruto." There is a flicker and 'Dog' is gone. Cu wonders if it some type of magic but knows it isn't. This village doesn't have or use magic.

Anyway.

"Anyway, where are ya heading too?" Cu asks as he turned around. Naruto hums. "You talk weird! 'N I was thinking about just uh… uh… somewhere…"

"What about that orphanage you stay at?"

"Got kicked out again." Cu stops walking at the answer.

"Well, that's not good." Shirou voices from behind them. Naruto squeaks and jumps away. "How'd you do that!"

'Magic' they both thought but didn't say it out loud. "I walked." Shirou answers. Cu looks over his shoulder at the other. "The kid got kicked out of the orphanage." He informs.

"Your point?" Shiro says in a disinteresting tone. Cu growls.

"Take us to the orphanage kid."

The second Shirou lays eyes on the orphanage he automatically thinks: No. When he actually sees Naruto trying to sneak in through the second story window he kicks the door to the orphanage open while dragging the child. Apparently, the head of the orphanage was a woman who was about to bad mouth the kid until Cu gave her a look. Then she shut up real quick.

Cu waits outside as finishes his smoke. By the time he is down Emiya comes back with a look of disgust on his face, a shocked looking Naruto, and a very small bag- wait it was a pillowcase!

The lancer doesn't say anything because he knows that look on the archer's face.

Welp, they have a new housemate.

* * *

Naruto explores every single inch of the estate. Literally, he does. The inside, the outside, the garden, the bedrooms, the bathrooms, the dojo and the kitchen.

Naruto has never had a home before. The five-year-old has never actually had people talk and look at him. Never had a bed to sleep in or a working bath.

Shirou goes straight to the kitchen to make dinner and Naruto follows him, asking questions.

"Am I really going to stay here?"

"Yes."

"You two live in this place?"

"Yes."

"Which room is mine?"

"Pick one."

"Can we have ramen?"

"We're having Katsudon, we'll have ramen tomorrow."

"Aw. Can I make the ramen."

"No. I am the only one that can cook in the kitchen. Cu can cook but he needs my seal of approval."

Naruto pouts but doesn't say anything else. He's a bit timid around them but that's okay. Shirou has experience with children. So he'll give the child time.

The next day Naruto wakes up in a comfortable bed to the smell of something delicious. He knows from the evening before that it must be Shirou's cooking because it smells like Kami has cooked.

He sits up and rubs his face. He blinks open his eyes and sees something at the corner of his eye.

It is Dog, sitting criss-cross on the floor with a book in hand. He marks his page before placing the book down. "Yo." He gives a lazy wave. Naruto blinks.

"Hi, how'd you find me?"

"I am your guard Naruto. I know where you are whenever I'm on duty." Dog answers and rests his chin on his palm. "Mind telling me about your friends?"

"If you watch me all the time you'd know!" Naruto says matter of factly. The masks tilt.

"Maa, you're right but I don't personally-" He sits up straight when the door slides open. He is gone before Shirou pokes his head inside.

"Breakfast." Is all he says and walks away.

Dog is back in a few moments.

"Tell your friend he can eat too!" Shirou yells and Naruto hears Dog curse.

"Oi Archer, there's a dog hanging around on our roof," Cu says as he walks into the kitchen, yawning and hair out of its tie. He smelled the guard earlier before he came out his room.

"Great, now I have a guard dog and watchdog," Shirou says as he catches the fork Cu threw his way. Then the archer shrugged, "I told him he could eat. He didn't come when Naruto came."

Naruto was currently too busy wolfing down the blessed food that had been bestowed upon him. Seriously Shirou was a great cook. He didn't know rice and fish could taste this good.

"Maa, I'm not a watchdog." The guard appears in the seat next to Naruto at the bar. Instead of the shocked reaction, he was looking for, Shirou slides him a plate.

"I don't care what you are. Just don't break anything and don't mess up my kitchen."

He sees the watchdog twitch, obviously not happy with his reaction. Shirou doesn't care.

"Sadly I cannot stay too long," even though he says this he takes his plate then gives a lazy wave before flickering away.

That was going to take some getting used to.

"Mind telling us who he is kid?" Cu asks, he's picking his teeth with a knife and Naruto is a bit amazed at how sharp the man's teeth are.

"I don't know his real name. I call him Dog because his mask is a dog. He's one of the bodyguards Jiji gave me, but he isn't around much because he has to take missions a lot. I like him and the other two. The rest can go get lost somewhere."

"There's more than one?" Shirou asks.

Naruto nods, "I don't like 'em. The only ones I like are Dog, Weasel, and the one with the freaky eyes." Naruto makes circles around his eyes and makes them go wide to a certain point. Archer is reminded of a certain caster.

"Right, so this kid has bodyguards?" Cu asks, wondering what they had gotten themselves into. The kid didn't look like a royal or a noble of sorts.

Shirou shrugs.

"Those three are the only ones that actually protect me. I've spoken to them but I talk to dog the most."

Huh.

* * *

_One sometimes has to think whether they should do the right or wrong thing. It depends on the situation- really. Then again it can depend on your morals._

_Anyway._

_When one is driven so much by fear they begin to hate the things they fear. I got over my fear because I didn't want to- no I couldn't come to hate Naruto. But I hated how the villages treated him and how the Sandaime operates… things._

_Maa, was that last sentence counted as treason? I'll cross it out later._

_Anyway, I went against Sandaime's order, so did the other two but I'm not gonna mention their names. They can speak for themselves._

_*Note: Keep an eye out and gather Information on Emiya and Chulainn (whatever kind of name that is). Naruto likes them but I'm not that naive. I'm a bit impressed that the blue one smelled me (maybe he has Inuzuka blood?)._

_Also, find out how they got access to the Namikaze estate ASAP._

_Hatake Kakashi._

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes:
> 
> Crap, I left a few things out but I guess I'll have to write it out in the next chapter. Thank you for the reviews on here and the Kudos on AO3. They mean a lot.
> 
> I would like to note, that this might be a slow build fanfic. That's a strong might.
> 
> Also, I plan on making Archer and Cu the only fate characters here. The majority of the characters will be from Naruto.


	3. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Someone on AO3 asked if there would be any pairing. I'm not good at writing romance but I will try. I planned to have the main pairing as SasuNaru, but that will be later on in the story. Other pairings will have to wait.
> 
> **I wanted to make updates a weekly thing because I already had most of this chapter done the week after I posted the first to. So I might do every other week. To thank you all for your patience please enjoy 19 pages of my imagination running on two hours of sleep, coffee, and peach honey tea!

 

* * *

 

* * *

"What are those?"

"Tomatoes." Cu answers as he inspects the red fruit. They were almost perfect, he will give them another day

They are crouched in the garden. Naruto is settled next to him, their legs nearly touching. After breakfast, Shirou had kicked them out the kitchen to clean. So Cu tended to his garden.

He likes gardening, it is a pass time. He doesn't have much of a green thumb but Shirou tells him that the vegetables are growing well despite not using fertilizer. Not to mention that they're better than the ones in the market.

"Nuh uh, I've seen and ated a tomato before. They're wrinkly and soft and brown and stink."

"Eaten," Cu corrects, then scrunches up his nose. "If they look like that then they're rotten and gone bad. Why are ya eating rotten tomatoes?"

Naruto shrugs, "I didn't know they were rotten. I thought they all tasted and looked like that."

"Who gave you rotten food?" Cu asks again as he snatched a weed out of the ground.

"Uh, the lady at the orphanage. I ate em because I was always hungry and I never got sick from em, y'know."

Cu frowns as he snatches another weed out the soil. He's definitely going to scare the wretch for that now.

"Well, you don't need to worry about that anymore. Our stuff isn't rotten and you can eat whatever ya want."

"Really?!" Naruto's eyes went wide as if Cu just told him he could have all the treasure in that world. Cu wonders if that is the reason the boy looks so small for his age. Naruto told them he was five but he was really small. It was probably because of eating bad food and having a lack of food.

"Yeah, you can have anything out the garden if it's ripe. Just wash it first because it's been in the dirt." The Irishman says as he looks at the greens and lettuce. "We've got fruit too but those are in the back. There's fish in the pond towards the east of forest and there's that one apple tree around there somewhere."

Naruto looked so kiddy that he actually started bouncing on his heels. He gets to eat whenever he wanted here! Then he stops and his eyes narrow, "I can't get food out the kitchen?"

"You have to talk to Shirou about that." Because Shirou cherished and guarded the kitchen with his life for some godly reason. Naruto huffs but nods.

Once the lancer finishes plucking out weeds for the morning they both head back in the house. Shirou is already done with the kitchen and it is spotless as they walk through it to the common room.

They see Shirou putting on a jacket and some shoes.

"I'm going to work."

"You work?" Naruto asks.

"Yes. I work part-time cleaning at the weapons shop. Then I cater at the tea house." Is all the archer says.

"Does that mean you sell stuff like swords and kunai to ninjas? Are you two ninjas-"

"No." Is archer's response. "We're not ninja, I only clean and refine the weapons."

Naruto momentarily deflates but Cu pats his head. The little boy momentarily goes stiff like last time. Cu wonders if its involuntary and looks at Emiya. Emiya takes notice as Cu lifts his hand. Naruto seems to relax a little bit.

"You work during the day and night?"

"Sometimes we do," Cu answers. "I got work as well, which means I gotta find something to do with you."

Naruto pouts, "I can help!" He protests and really, it was just adorable the way he pouted and crossed his arms. Cu however, gave the boy a deadpanned look, "No. You cannot help."

"Why not?"

"Because we work in the red light district." Shirou answers and ah, maybe he should not have said that to a five-year-old child.

There was a moment as Naruto's brows furrowed together in thought before-

"YOU TWO ARE GOING MAN WHORING!" He declared rather loudly. Shirou nearly choked and with a red face, he quickly retorted,"We are not man whoring! Who taught you those words?!"

Cu barked out a laughed and clapped Naruto on the back. The boy lost his footing but didn't fall. "No we're not man whoring, we're protecting them," Cu says before the boy can say anything. "We work at the Geisha's Teahouse. It isn't right in the red light district-" wait, why is he telling a five-year-old this?

"Anyway, Shiro cooks and helps the girls with their clothes and stuff. I just throw out anyone who starts trouble and run errands for them." Cu shrugs. It wasn't a job you would think two men were doing but Geisha's made  _a lot_ of money which meant they get paid a lot too.

I mean, that's how they managed to get this whole estate furnished so damn fast.

Naruto made a face, a bit embarrassed. He's been to the red light district plenty of times. Most of the time was because he would always get chased after he was locked out the orphanage at night. He vaguely remembers one night where one of the prostitutes let him stay if he was quiet and stayed in the wardrobe.

"Oh." He looks down. "Hehe, sorry."

"Anyway," Shirou says once he regains his composure. "Where did you learn the phrase 'man whoring?'"

"Dog," Naruto immediately answers while scratching the back of his neck.

Shirou makes a silent note to strangle a certain mutt.

Across Konoha, a certain Anbu member sneezed.

"I don't think the geisha will mind him being there too much," Cu admits while scratching his chin. He'd have to ask the head of the tea house for that.

"The tea house wouldn't mind if one of us is around," Shirou says as he leaves with a wave. Cu snorts, "Well kid looks like you're going with me."

* * *

Naruto has never been in the Tea House before, probably because it was not necessarily in the red light district, it was in the fancy area close to it. Or the rich side of the village.

He twitches a bit and stays next to his companion as they enter the tea house and is greeted by a very tall woman in pretty colors. He thinks he doesn't belong here.

"Yo!" Cu greets with a smile, cigarette in mouth. The woman shakes her head, "Now Cu-kun, we do not greet each other like that." She pricks the cigarette out of his mouth with ease, "We also do not smoke these cheap things."

"Ah, sorry. I forgot- the pipe right?"

"Yes," She says, then looks down to Naruto, "So the rumors of Emiya-kun bringing home a child were true?"

Cu raises an eyebrow. There were rumors? Already? It had only been one day and he's sure no one was around when it happened.

She chuckles, "He can stay here as you work. The girls would probably like a child around with how much men we get here. They'll probably coddle him and he'll learn a few things." She shrugs.

Meanwhile, Naruto is trying to wonder why this woman would let him stay here at all places.

Cu nudges him forward as she bends down. "You may address me as Benkei-sama. You are Naruto-kun yes?" She chuckles as his eyes grow wide. "I'll show you the room where we teach the girls. Do you know how to read and write yet?"

"I-I can uh, read a little bit." Naruto has never had access to books or any type of learning material before.

Benkei-sama hums. "They'll have this boy educated in a week." She mumbles as she stands. She reached into the sleeves of her robe and pulled out a pipe and gave it to Cu. "We have a party right now, I don't think they'll cause much trouble but they were drunk when they came. Please feel free to throw them out the doors if necessary."

Cu smiles and turns to leave the main room.

* * *

Sarutobi lets out a puff of smoke from his pipe as he reads over Kakashi's report. Kakashi stands in the before him, head tilted. If his mask were not in the way the Sandaime would have guessed he wore a bored expression on his face.

"He is now staying with Emiya-san and Chulainn-san?"

Kakashi gives a lazy nod. "It seemed that way. Naruto wasn't complaining." Which Kakashi thinks is understandable because of the way he was living at the orphanage.

The Sandaime narrowed his eyes. He's heard of the two men Kakashi describes in the report. Mostly because Emiya was very popular among Akimichi clan.

" _Master chef!"_ He remembers Choza's praise.

Emiya was also popular Mitsashi's since he worked at their weapons shop.

Then there was Chulainn. As far as Sarutobi knows, the man gets along with most of the people he meets. He was known for being around the teahouse as well. Not to mention that it was impossible not to see him given how blue he is.

The two were registered as citizens of Konoha a few years ago. Sarutobi doesn't know how the two managed to sneak into the system so easily. He knows it was during the reconstruction period the village was going through. There were rumors, but he paid no mind to it at the time with all the work that needed to be done. They helped with the building and people just like the rest of them.

He clicks his pipe between his teeth.

Then he reads the rest of the report and nearly chokes on said pipe because  _what the hell?!_

Kakashi seemed to have been waiting for some reaction similar to that because he spoke when it happened. "I know. I don't know how they managed to gain access there either."

The Sandaime coughs. There should not be a way to be able to step foot near that estate. For one it was in a secluded area in the forest. Two was because of the stone. He remembers Minato coming to him about how he created them as some sort of defense mechanisms. It was a system that registered the chakra of people in order to let them pass. Were they able to recalculate it? Perhaps they destroyed it?

"Kakashi do you know how long they've been staying there?"

"No, not yet. It seemed like a while given how furnished the place is."

The Sandaime mulled this over in his head. "Keep watch on them. Try to gather as much information as possible. Take whoever you see fit to help you."

Kakashi nods.

* * *

Shiro looks at the clothes on the racks. Some were brightly colored, some were dull. He managed to pick out a few but honestly, he does not know what Naruto likes to wear or what size the kid is.

He shrugs and just decides to buy some weekly clothes, underwear, night clothes, and a coat since it was going to get cold soon. Lastly, he got some shoes, remembering the raggedy sandles the boy had. If the clothes were too big Naruto could just grow into them, he was bound to have some growth spurt soon. If they were too small they could always return them.

He spends a pretty cheap amount, surprisingly and exits the store. All he had to do was get home and drop these off and head to the Tea House for his night shift.

"Oi! Shirou!"

Ah, well looks like he doesn't have to stop at home then.

Naruto runs toward Shirou with Cu strolling behind him. The boy attaches himself to Shirou's legs with an overdramatic cry that makes a few people turn their way. Shirou raises an eyebrow.

"The Geishas didn't go easy on when they were tutoring him."

"Tutoring?" Shirou echoes and Naruto gives another overdramatic sob.

"They made me read and practice writing! I had to write my name a hundred times! Then I had to write the alphabet a hundred times and Benkei went on about how a gentleman needed to know how to read and write and she wouldn't even let me have lunch until I got it all right-"

Shirou places a hand over the kid's mouth. Seriously Naruto had a pair of lungs on him.

Cu only chuckles and Shirou huffs, pulling Naruto off of him.

"She wants him back there first thing tomorrow morning," Cu says with a smirk as Naruto tried and failed to keep a hold on Shirou. He was clearly amused at how Benkei and the others were drilling the boy's head in.

"Fine with me," Shirou answers with a sigh. Somehow Naruto ends up being held on his hip and Shirou just holds him there since the boy wasn't struggling anymore. He holds the bags filled with clothes out to Cu who takes them.

"It's his clothes, take em home. I'm going to the Tea House."

"Huh?" Naruto asks, "Didn't you just get off work?"

"I work two jobs."

"When do you sleep?"

Shirou keeps quiet and Cu pops up beside the kid to take him. "He doesn't go to sleep. He runs off of cooking, cleaning, sass, back talking, and a sheer force called maternal instincts."

"What?" Naruto squeaks out.

"Coffee. Naruto. Coffee." Shirou grinds out with a small blush on his face. Cu smirks, bastard. Shirou is so going to overseason his food in the morning to give him the runs.

"Right," Cu adjusts Naruto in his grip and slings the bags of his other shoulder. "Welp, time for us to go home and tear up the kitchen for dinner."

" **Dinner is the ramen in the damn cooker, do not fuck up my kitchen,"** Shirou says in Gaelic.

" **Language."** Cu scolds with an amused look on his face.

Shirou is definitely giving him the runs in the morning.

When Naruto and Cu get home the first thing that is done is cleaning Naruto. Cu remembers Benkei's comment about the boy not being within 'her' standards when it came to hygiene. Since Shirou got the kid new clothes and all he sends Naruto to the bathroom and goes to check on the food.

It takes awhile but Naruto manages to get himself clean. He also manages to somehow trash the entire bathroom. How? Cu didn't know, it was a huge bathroom but it seems that the five-year-old found a way.

They eat and Naruto ends up passing out on the mat on the floor in the common room while watching tv.

Shirou gets home two hours before the sun rises. He slides open the door and is greeted by the watchdog.

"Yo." He gives a lazy wave. Shirou takes off his shoes before entering, giving him a good morning.

"How'd you get in?" Shirou has to ask. Last time he didn't see the watchdog get in but he's seen the way the other can flicker out the room.

Like expected Shirou doesn't get an answer so instead, he moves to the kitchen. Glad that it is clean and intact.

Moving on.

"I take it your one of those shinobi forces. You're just on a level higher than regular ones?" He asks while taking a skillet out. A hum is his answer. Shirou doesn't know much about how the shinobi are categorized. He knows that there's a system and that there are different levels of power but he did not know the specifics.

Shirou would classify them all in the assassin class though. He's never seen any of them in action but the way they are described and the way the watch dog was watching they were trained to be assassins.

"You can say that."

"I guess that means you have a reason of being here?"

Another hum. Shirou looks through the fridge for some eggs.

"Alright then fine. I'll be blunt. Why are you here?"

"I am on duty. Protect Naruto."

"You seem to do a shit job about it. Oh, mornin'" Cu spoke up from the hallway. "You know last night that kid told me that was the first time he ever bathed with clean hot water. I nearly wanted to punch something."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed behind his mask. He knew about Naruto's living conditions. Sadly it was one of the many things he did not have a say in.

"Another thing," Cu takes a seat at the table, "Why the hell do people avoid him like the plague? They abuse him too, I've seen the way he flinches when someone touches him."

Ah. They didn't know.

Kakashi does not know if this is a good or bad thing. This confirms some of his suspicions about the two. They didn't know what Naruto had inside him, meaning they knew very little about what happened.

He couldn't tell them even if he wanted to.

"That's confidential." Kakashi answers, it's a textbook answer because it is confidential and it is an S class crime to talk about. Not to mention that Naruto is somewhere in this house as they speak.

"The fuck-" Cu nearly curses in his own language but it comes out in a slurred mixture that only Shirou can understand. "-Does that mean."

"It means that he isn't allowed to talk about it. If it's confidential it could also mean that no one else could talk about it." Damn the Emiya was smart.

"Right," Kakashi says. To tell the truth he isn't even supposed to be talking to them. He is supposed to be hiding somewhere like a good ANBU and waiting for something to happen.

Oh, Kami he might regret this one day.

"So we're just supposed to sit there and let grown ass people bully the kid?"

"Maa, that's where I come in and kick their ass." Kakashi has had to kick a few people's asses and break a few limbs here and there whenever people got physical. He couldn't do anything if it was just verbal abuse.

Which sucked.

"I'm still going to punch someone."

"Call me when you do I want to see it." Shirou says from over the stove. "Breakfast will be ready in about fifteen minutes. Make sure to wake Naruto."

"Hai Hai Mother."

"I don't remember creating you." Shirou deadpans.

A few hours later Kakashi is on the roof of the estate. He bites his thumb, using the blood to summon one of his ninken, Pakkun. The ninken appeared in a puff of smoke and looked up at the teen. Kakashi attaches a scroll to Pakkun's back. "To the Sandaime. Dismiss yourself on his orders." The small dog nods his head before disappearing.

Hm.

So Emiya and Chulainn knew nothing of Naruto's real origins. To them, Naruto was just a regular orphan. An orphan that has been treated poorly and abused by the people for some unknown reason. It makes sense given the fact that they were not there around the time the attack happens.

Meaning that they brought the boy home purely for his own safety. They did not seem to have ill intentions but he couldn't be too sure. People always change and things always happen and he would be damned if anything happened to Naruto.

"You've been sitting here for awhile Captain."

Kakashi hums as Tenzo appears next to him. "Is there something to matter?"

"Maa, just thinking is all. I sent Pakkun to give information to the Hokage."

"That's not what I meant," Tenzo says as he looks around. "You're here… At this estate…"

Oh. Now Kakashi understood.

"Yes, I'm fine," then to reassure his kouhai he added, "I'm here because Naruto moved in here the other night."

Tenzo's eyes widened behind the mask and he stood up straight. "He knows-"

"No." Kakashi says, he's probably the only one on his squad that knows since most of them were on missions when he was on duty. "I'll fill you in. You have time?"

Tenzo nods, "I've already turned in my mission report so I'm free for the rest of the day."

There was a small movement and Pakkun was back with a scroll. Kakashi takes it.

* * *

Later that night all three of them were at home. Shirou did not have to work the night ship because Benkei closed the Tea House early. Something about not having any reservations tonight.

So here they are, in the common room, watching tv while sitting under the kotatsu. They've already eaten. Naruto looks like he has given up on fighting sleep as he lies under the table. Cu gives the kid two minutes before he is out of it.

True enough the kid is out of it. Shirou picks him up and carries him to his room. He places Naruto in bed (which was a bit difficult because the boy hung on to him like a leach).

When he finally gets Naruto's arms from around him and lies the boy down he sees something peeking from under the boy's shirt. It was black. Growing a bit a concerned Shirou pulls the boy's shirt up to look at his stomach to make sure it wasn't a bruise or anything.

His eyes went wide a bit.

He's seen these before, on the door to the shed, the doors to the basement and on some of the things in the basement. The inkings were very similar. Shirou paid them no mind back then because whenever he tried to examine the items that had the ink on them they would never budge or open. They were a complicated design, they looked more like a picture than words.

The one on Naruto's stomach was a swirl with nine extensions. Shirou frowned, damn he wished he understood the information of this era. Shirou examines it further, squinting and places a finger on one of the patterns.

The pattern glows and extends and Shirou's heart nearly catches in his throat because the patterns glow red before taking the shape of the all too familiar runes and lines all over the boy's body before retracting back to his stomach.

_Fuck._

Naruto was their master?! This little boy? He probably didn't know. Hell, he probably didn't know that he was a walking command seal bank with so many magic circuits. He felt the pulse of mana it was humongous.

Shirou stands there for a few moments, mulling over his thoughts in silence. He regains himself before moving to pull down Naruto's shirt.

"You should not be looking at that." The watchdog says from behind him. Shirou can feel something cold against the nape of his neck. He nearly snorts. Was the watchdog threatening him?

"It seems to me that this is something worth fighting for. Or should I say killing for?" Shirou says. He pulls Naruto's shirt back down. "Get that knife off of me."

"Step away."

"Gladly, if you back the fuck up and tell me what is that on his stomach. You can also tell me the relationship between the writings in the basement and shed as well. They look similar." Shirou knows about command seals and magical circuits. However, he doesn't know about the use of the black ink.

"That is confidential."

"Be smart," Shirou says with a sigh, "I know you don't want to kill me." Like he actually can.

"Step away Emiya-san."

"I already told you how I can do that-"

The door slides open, and Shirou  _moves._

In a matter of seconds, Shirou and Naruto are on the other side of the room and the watchdog is being pinned down by Cu's foot on his neck.

"Now, I understand. Shirou can really piss someone off, trust me, he's got a mouth on 'im." Cu starts, even though his tone was light Shirou could tell he was a bit serious. "But that's no reason to try to kill him."

"What the fuck-" Kakashi coughs as Cu stepped on him harder.

Cu frowned, "The thing is I'm actually fond of the bastard and to come inside a room looking at this, you know why I'm the defense right?"

" **He thought I was going to hurt Naruto,** " Shirou says in Gaelic and readjusts Naruto in his arms. The child must've been really out of it.

Cu only hums and lets his foot up just a bit to give the other air. Kakashi sucks as much in as possible because  _what the actual_ _ **fuck.**_  Never in his life has he seen someone move that fast. He could probably be faster than that one Uchiha on the squad.

The sirens are going off in his head right now as Chulainn stares down at him with those red eyes of his. He knows nothing about these two and their abilities. The only other people that are on duty with him are Tenzo and Neko and they are outside.

_Fuck._

"Don't try anything funny. I'm going to let you up, do anything stupid and I'm kicking you through the damn wall. Understand?"

Kakashi nods his head, and the Chulainn moves his foot off of him. Kakashi rolls over to his feet and reaches up to rub his neck.

The sirens are still going off in his head but he doesn't move.

After a moment of stillness, it is Shirou who moves to place Naruto back in bed. He tucks the boy in and exits the room. Cu following him and Kakashi follows soon after.

Shirou closes the door to Naruto's room and they walk to the kitchen. Kakashi makes sure to keep a good distance away from them.

"Now. We're going to handle this like civilized people. What are those things on Naruto?"

Kakashi stiffens at Emiya's question. His mind thinking to give a vague answer. Not too much information but just enough.

"Seals."

"Seals?" Cu echoes then frown. Were they like runes? He didn't get look at them but if they are like the others on the shed then they could be. Were they something to seal away magic?

"They are also on the shed and on some items in the basement. They are not exactly the same but I take it they are of the same class?"

Kakashi nods slowly. Did these two really not know what seals were? He knows they are civilians but even civilians know of or have heard of such things.

" **Are they the equivalent to runes?"**  Chulainn asks Emiya in something Kakashi doesn't understand. Emiya makes a one-sided shrug. " **I'm not sure, you should take a look at them."**

Emiya then looks back to Kakashi. "This has something to do with the people harming Naruto right?"

Kakashi says nothing.

"You're going to have to tell us."

"I will not. I am under oath."

"Allow us to rephrase it then," Chulainn says with a smirk, "You're going to tell us."

Kakashi narrows his eyes. "I will not. It's against the law to talk about it. The only way I'm giving it up is if the Hokage orders me to do it or someone beats it out of me."

He should not have said the last part.

 _Really_  he should not have said it because Emiya and Chulainn are  _monsters._

* * *

Kakashi sunshins into the Hokage's office battered, bleeding, and torn with his mask missing. The Sandaime's eyebrows shoot up and he is alert.

Kakashi wheezes and places a piece of folded paper on the Sandaime's desk.

_If it isn't too much trouble, we'd like to request an audience with the Hokage. Anytime is welcomed but the sooner the better. It is about Naruto's background and some concerns we have._

_Ps. make sure the messenger gets medical attention we're afraid we overestimated him a bit. Those other two guards that were with him are already there._

_Emiya and Chulainn_

Sarutobi calls for a few of his personal Anbu guards to get Kakashi to the hospital and tells one of them to clear his schedule in the morning.

* * *

"He has command seals," Shirou says as they walk through the backyard. Cu stops dead in his tracks and looks over his shoulder at the archer. "What?!"

"Not just the regular ones. They are all over his body and he has an excessive amount of mana. He's basically a walking mana bank Cu."

Cu turns fully around, letting his spear fade away. "When the fuck did you figure this out?"

"Before that watchdog came in," Shirou answers and looks around at the yard to see how much damage had been dealt.

Cu sighs, cracking the muscles in his neck. "You mean to tell me that that five-year-old is our master?"

"Yes," Shirou answers, which was kind of weird. They have been in this place for five years, could that mean they were summoned when Naruto was born? If that's the case then Naruto could not have done the actual summoning.

"That doesn't make sense," The Irishman growled out. "How the hell were we summoned here then?"

Shirou shrugs, "We're here now, and we just found out our master is a child. My theory would be that his parent summoned us but there was an accident." Then the archer narrowed his eyes. "However I remember there was at least a week gap between our summonings and no one was there when were summoned."

Cu nods, "No one was in that basement when I was there. Just a bunch of scrolls and books with that stuff on it…"

The lancer straightened. "Shirou, those seals that guy mentioned earlier, they could probably help."

"Hm?"

"I've got an idea. They've got libraries here, right? We'll have to do some research on them but I think they're like runes. We can translate them somehow and see if it's possible to get into that stuff and that shed. We could also find out what's on Naruto."

Shirou thinks it is a good idea. If it does not work it is a start and at least they are going to make progress.

"We'll have to get a closer look at them. I also don't know much about the runecraft the druids used in your time."

"Leave that me." Cu mumbles as he went over to examine the garden. "Just help out a bit and I'll see what I can do." Cu knows much about the runes and the craft. In this form, the lancer form, they were limited but he still remembers the knowledge that was drilled into his head about them.

Cu sighs, it was damn near midnight probably and they had a lot to do. Not to mention that they had to wait for a response from that Hokage guy. If the watchdog even made it.

Seriously, Cu was expecting much more of a fight from him and the other two guards. He admits he was a little caught off guard when one of them literally caused the trees to move.

"Another thing, find out what type of magic they use here." He said as a note. Shirou makes a nod before entering the house.

* * *

"The Hokage wishes to see you both. I am here to escort you there."

It was around four o'clock in the morning when the kid suddenly appeared in the common room.

Cu and Emiya had voted on putting off sleep to try to list the things that needed to done and researched.

Now here was a boy, he was maybe around twelve, wearing a white masked that resembled a weasel.

Shirou and Cu looked at each other before shrugging.

"In order for me to escort you there, you two must hold on to me. It will only take a second."

The child was right. One minute they home and the next they are in some sort of office. Cu lets out a curse in Gaelic and stumbles. Shirou has to blink away his dizziness.

Okay, that was unsettling.

The child disappears and the two need a moment to regain themselves.

"Gentlemen," The Hokage addresses them. Shirou stiffens as Cu narrows his eyes. So this was the 'ruler', the Hokage.

The Hokage looks both of them up and down. One dressed in red and the other in blue. They look like they came expecting a fight from the way they carried themselves, especially the blue one.

Shirou doesn't know what he was expecting but he wasn't expecting an old man with a hat over his head smoking a pipe. He's seen kings and emperors before. He's so used to them being clad in gold and jewels.

If this man didn't have such an intimidating aura Shirou would think he was a humble grandfather.

Cu wasn't one to judge. If this old man held power it was for a reason. He was giving off an air of authority and the hound wasn't going to test him. They were here to talk not fight.

Unless they had too.

"I will start by saying that this meeting is private and I have even sent my most personal guards away. Nothing will leave this room unless needed." Traces of smoke leave the man's mouth as he speaks and it reminds Shirou of a dragon. A good comparison actually.

"I understand you two have questions and concerns but I guess I should start by questioning you," He takes the pipe out of his mouth and with a  _chink_ sets it down on an ashtray. He places his chin on his hands and stares at the two head-on.

"How were you able to put on of my strongest and efficient soldier in the hospital and most importantly what do you want with Naruto?"

"With Naruto, we just want to know of his origins and of the marking on his stomach. As for hospitalizing your 'soldier' he had it coming."

The Hokage narrows his eyes.

"He did really," Cu speaks up, "He attacked us first and we defended."

"He had three broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, three arrows sticking out of him, a shattered knee, broken noes and a hairline fracture."

"He should've dodged." Shirou deadpans. Which was true, he could have dodged those arrows Shirou sent his way like those other two guards did. Then again if he did Cu probably would have did much more damage.

"I fail to believe that two civilians can do that much damage," The older man growled, "Are your two spies?"

"Hah? You make it seem like civilians can't protect themselves." Cu says with a small growl of his own, "No offense but we aren't the defenseless people, someone has to protect the kid and we're not spies."

Shirou crosses his arms over his chests, "We're willing to make a compromise. You said anything said here will not leave this room. We'll give you answers if you give us answers."

The Hokage says nothing for a long time before he sighs. He was getting too old for this. He knows nothing about these two and it is infuriating. They manage to Hatake Kakashi in the hospital. They were dangerous and they had Naruto.

From what Kakashi had reported earlier yesterday, the two knew nothing of Naruto's past or what he was. They didn't know why the village hated the boy and they didn't hate they boy at all.

The thought of just killing the two crosses his mind but he stops it. If they were able to put Kakashi in the hospital it was something serious. Not only that, the image of a sad Naruto crossed his mind he couldn't bear to see that.

Sarutobi sighs. These two could be a threat but they could also be a big help. If they were strong enough to take out Anbu forces then… yes, yes.

Naruto could learn a few things if this went according to the plan forming in his head.

The Hokage visible relaxes before nodding to himself. He takes his pipe and returns it to his lips. "I see, I see. We'll compromise," He says finally, and waves his hand of over to the left side of the office where the seats were. "Take a seat, we'll be here for awhile you might want to get comfortable."

He hopes this will work out in the end, for Naruto and for all the things he couldn't do for the child.

**TBC**

**~~~**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's end Notes~~~
> 
> One thing I would like to mention is the word count. It will vary from chapter to chapter depending on how much information I feel is needed. I'm giving a heads up now that some chapters will be short and some will be long. I have no steady pace.
> 
> This will probably fall under the long/medium ones because of you guys brilliant suggestions and ideas, I thank you for them. I also couldn't think of a few stopping points which is why this chapter is longer than the others.
> 
> Also, um. Any information about the two anime is welcomed with open arms. It has been awhile since I've seen Fate and Naruto, but I do play FGO a lot if that helps. Hmm.
> 
> BETA readers are welcomed! I have poor grammar and I honestly think my writing doesn't flow well. You don't have to be a BETA reader you can just critique my writing and give me a few pointers.
> 
> Have a nice day~ I'm on the way to see black panther~


	4. Chapter 3

Okay, so…

 

Cu and Shirou’s respect for Konoha has sunk down low.  _ Dangerously low.  _

 

Even so they couldn’t do shit about it because what’s done was done. Still there was probably better solutions and ways to go with this problem than what was happening right now. 

 

Still, they held their end of the bargain, and told the old man of their origins. Of course Shirou didn’t tell him about being a counter guardian. Cu didn’t even know about him being a counter guardian. 

 

Of course, in order to tell about their situation they had to give a lot of background information. The old man looked like he was this close to call bullshit on both of them. However he surprised the both of him when he stayed quiet throughout everything. 

 

“Nothing will leave this room.” He said when they were finished. “I’ll give you both a permit to access the shinobi library and archives to research. If there is a problem contact me. As for now, I will summon you both for another meeting to discuss my thoughts. Wait outside for the boy you saw earlier.”

~~~~

“I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.” Cu grumbles as he stared at the fish in the pond. It was around seven o’clock when they returned home, meaning they spent a good three hours talking with the Hokage. 

 

“It was hard to read him, he was too quiet.” Which didn’t help the situation at all. It left them with their nerves on high alert. It left them with too many thoughts and too many things to look out for. 

Fuck they should not have told him but they needed to know about Naruto. That boy was their master now. 

 

He was still a child as well. 

 

A child that held something extremely dangerous inside of him.

 

Cu mumbles to himself as he watches one of the fish dart towards his direction before swimming away. 

 

“I’m going to make a quick breakfast.” Was all the archer said before walking away. 

~~~

“Are we in trouble?” 

 

The question from the small blonde child throws the hound of Ulster off a bit. It was out of the blue and Cu nearly drops his cigarette. 

 

“What? Why?”

 

Naruto scoots a little closer to him on the floor. “Dog’s not here and he usually tells me when he has a mission. Weasel was here earlier but he told me he can’t talk about it and you two aren’t at work today.” 

 

Cu blinks, “We don’t work on Sundays Naruto.” His hand came up to ruffle the child’s hair. “No, we’re not in trouble or anything. I’m pretty sure dog will come back.” 

 

Cu isn’t sure about that considering how much of a beating the took from both him and Shirou. He’s pretty sure that the village has good medical technologies so Dog should be ok. 

 

Naruto plays with a loose thread on his shirt and Cu goes back to the television. 

 

Only for the Weasel kid to appear on the kotatsu. 

 

“The Hokage’s permit.” He says as he hands the envelope to Cu. “There are two just in case. Please do not lose them.” 

 

Naruto blinks rapidly as Cu takes the envelope, causing the Weasel to disappear. 

 

“What’s a permit?” 

 

Cu narrows his eyes, “Basically written permission for us to do somethings.” Naruto seemed to perk up as he tries to lean over to get a good look at the paper. 

 

“Jiji’s letting you do something!? I wanna help!” Ah, the enthusiasm of a five-year-old. 

 

“Do you even know what these are for?” 

 

Naruto shook his head then crossed his arms over his chest, “Nuh uh, but it has to be something special right?” 

  
  


That is how the five-year-old found himself in the library several hours later with a look of dread on his face. Naruto looked like he wanted to run across Konoha to get from the place.

 

“He’s not allowed in here.” Was the first thing the librarian at the front desk said. Naruto was currently hiding behind Shirou. Said man was looking at the man in disinterest. This was the library the Hokage instructed them to go to and they weren’t budging just because of some old man at a desk. 

 

“We don’t care,” Shirou deadpans, “We’ve come here to check out a few books and then leave.” 

 

“That  _ thing _ isn’t allowed here.” 

 

At Naruto’s flinch Cu happily slammed the permit into the man’s face and watched with great satisfaction as the man flailed and fell out his chair.

 

Cu isn’t one for waving around authority and power but if it was going to make old shits like this mess themselves then he would gladly do it. 

 

“We’ll find everything ourselves. If we need assistance we’ll find someone else,” Shirou says as Cu snatches the permit away. The Hokage was kind enough to give them a list of things to start off with.  “Come on Naruto.” 

 

Said blonde happily stayed attached to the two. 

 

“The Basics of Chakra,” Shirou reads  out from the lists, “Apparently this is where we start.” 

 

Naruto rose an eyebrow, “You two don’t know ‘bout chakra?” 

 

Shirou shook his head as Cu reads the list over. “No, we’re not Shinobi Naruto.” 

 

“Yeah but most people know what it is right? Jiji says everyone has it and they teach what it is at the academy.” 

 

Shirou side glances at the child, “Is that so? The academy teaches these things?” He asks in a whispers. Naruto nods. 

 

“Jiji said something about me learning it because I have to start going next year.” 

Shirou hums, he’d have to think about that later. 

 

“Found some,” Cu comes to them with a few books and scrolls. “I didn’t know which one to get, there’s a lot of them.” 

 

“Get all  of them,” Shirou deadpans and Naruto pales at the number of books and scrolls. He’s already been tortured with learning to read and write at the Teahouse. Now there’s more?!

 

“We’ll  start with these then just come back when we’re done.”

 

“You-you guys are going to read all that?” Naruto asked with a face of disgust. 

 

Shirou raised a pale eyebrow, “You’re going to read some too. From my understanding you said you started school next year correct? There’s nothing wrong in getting a head start.” 

 

Naruto groaned. 

 

There were eighteen books in all. The majority of them consisted of scrolls. They found out that the books were specifically made for children.  Shirou gave Naruto one of those first. He gave the boy his first assignment of at least reading the first chapter. It should not be too hard since the book was mostly pictures. 

 

Shiro took started with his own scroll in the common room and Cu took his to his room. The lancer mumbled something about needing to take notes. 

 

Hm, it was going to be a long Sunday. 

~~~~

 

“Hokage-sama are the rumors true?” 

 

The Hokage clicked the pipe in his mouth with his teeth as he stared at the other man in the council room. Shimura Danzo, one of the elders of the village, along with the civilian and the shinobi council

 

“There are many rumors Danzo-sama.” 

 

“The one about the child being taken away from the orphanage and living with two civilians.” Danzo said firmly. 

 

Ah, of course the Hokage knew what he had been speaking of. He was hoping that was not the case but of course people talked and if it was about Naruto is would spread faster than wildfire. 

 

“It is.” Hokage answers and the response is instantaneous. 

 

“WHAT?!” 

 

“Hokage-sama that is not a wise decision!”

 

“He’s going to put them in danger!”   
  


Mind you, it was mostly the civilian heads who made their outbursts. The head of the shinobi clans were more disciplined to wait their turns.  

 

“Are you all done now?” The Hokage asked with a raised brow. He knew he would get a reaction but that didn’t call for such unruliness. 

 

“With all due respect Hokage-sama, have you performed a thorough background check of these two?” Uchiha Fugaku, the head of the Uchiha clan addressed him loud and clear over the civilian heads’ chatter. 

 

“I have.” Which was somewhat true. He did find civilian files on Emiya and Chulainn. However there was little information on them. During their talk he pointed it out and said that he would have to end up making detailed files for them. 

 

He wouldn’t let the council know that though. 

 

“Hokage-sama we do not trust the child with two civilians!” Ugh, another civilian councilman. 

 

“Ho?” The Hokage raised an eyebrow. “I don’t understand why you would think that, seeing as though he has yet to harm anyone and is always getting physically and verbally abused.” 

 

“I second the Hokage’s decision.” 

 

Silence. 

 

“Shikaku-san?” Danzo looked at the head of he Nara. Shikaku has a bored expression on his face and gives Danzo a side glance before speaking again. 

 

“From my perspective putting him in a well grounded home could actually do well for his mental stability. My statement from before- about agreeing with Hokage-sama stands with this. If you civilians keep treating him the way you do then he might grow anger and resentment. Then we will have a bigger problem on our hands. Right  _ Danzo-sama _ ?” 

 

Danzo says nothing but another civilian head says something instead. 

 

“What do you mean  _ ‘you civilians’ _ -”

 

“Nara-san is correct,” Uchiha Fugaku speaks up. “The Uchiha police patrols Konoha and most of the complaints we receive about the child are from civilians. Most of the reports are so ridiculous that we think you all just use the child as a scapegoat. Not only that when we do patrol we only witness civilians going after the child. Shinobi just tend to overlook him and carry on about their days because of missions and work.” 

 

“I supposed I would have to agree with the Hokage and Nara-san.” Hyuuga Hiashi adds. “The only thing I wish to know is why these two civilians in particular? Most of the shinobi clans tried to adopt this child when he was an infant. Even  _ you _ tried to take him in Hokage-sama, but he was given to a foster family and dumped into an orphanage the second he learned how to walk.” 

 

There were many ways to answer that question and most of the council men waited patiently. The Hokage remembers the long meeting of trying to gain custody over Naruto. It was long and tiring. Naruto was originally supposed to go to his godfather but he never showed up. His supposed grandmother would not step foot back in Konoha and that led to the clans trying to gain custody of the child. 

 

The Hyuuga clan wanted to make him a main branch member. The Uchiha wanted him for reasons in power and such. The Nara weren’t interested. The Inuzuka, the Mitsashi’s and the Yamanaka’s tried to reason as well. 

 

The civilian council however was large at the time, and with Danzo on their side they managed to overthrow the shinobi council in keeping the child away from his origins. 

 

They saw him as a weapon and it made the Hokage sick. 

 

“It’s because he is a weapon of Konoha and that’s all he is!” Dazo shouts.

 

Well that caused an uproar. 

 

The Hokage rubs his temple, this meeting was going to be all day.

~~~~~~~

 

Tenzo hurts. 

 

Like I just got thrown off the Hokage monument, got hit by said monument, and blown up by the sun hurt. 

 

Okay maybe he is over exaggerating but that does not negate the fact that he got his ass handed to him. 

 

If he hurts this much he is pretty sure Kakashi is having a bad day. 

 

Neko managed to check out the hospital early because she was the least hurt out of the three of them. Tenzo and Kakashi had to stay overnight. 

 

Tenzo was lucky, he only had a broken arm, dislocated shoulder and a sprain ankle thanks to Emiya kicking him through a few trees. 

 

Kakashi on the other hand had to fight Chulainn all by  himself. Even though Tenzo did not see the full fight he does remember the blue blur slamming into Kakashi and launching him over the forest top. 

 

Yeah, they got their asses handed to them. 

“I am going to kill that blue mutt.” He hears Kakashi mumble through his mask. He is currently glaring at the ceiling with one eye. Tenzo would have laughed if it didn’t hurt him. His superior was strapped in the hospital bed , limbs propped up and gauze wrapped around him.

 

Okay Tenzo might have snorted. 

 

Kakashi glares at him. 

 

“I see that you two are fine and dandy.” 

 

“Crow.” Kakashi mumbles as the Anbu guard sunshined into the room. The Crow mask nods towards each of them. 

 

“Shisui-san.” Tenzo greets. 

 

“So it is true that you two got beat up?” 

 

“Who told you that?” 

 

“Ran into Neko on the way here.” They could practically hear the grin in the other’s voice. Kakashi growls. 

 

“Aren’t you supposed to be on duty?” 

 

“Weasel’s there. Also I heard that Danzo called a huge meeting because of those two guys you two were fighting.” 

 

“He saw it?” Tenzo asked ad Crow shook his head in negative. “Nah, the civilians spread the word around that the two picked up the Uzumaki kid. You know how they are.”

 

Kakashi only huffs but Tenzo lets out a sigh of relief. 

 

“So why are you here?” 

 

“To get a picture of our precious hospitalized captain!” There was a flash and then Crown flickered away. 

 

Kakashi was soooooo going to kick Chulainn’s ass one day. 

~~~~~~

 

“So it’s basically mana and prana- just a different word.” 

 

“Basically, however there doesn’t seem to be any records of magic circuits. Instead they have chakra coils.” 

 

Cu tilts his head to the side as he scratches the back of his neck. They managed to read it all in under three hours, including the children books. 

 

They were seated in the dojo and had most of the scrolls rolled out. 

 

“Okay,” The Irishman writes down a few things. “Chakra is basically what they need to survive, kinda like us. Except we need a master for it.” 

 

“Right,” Shirou flips through one of the books, “There’s no magic either. They call them jutsus, taijutsu, ninjutsu, genjutsu, fuinjutsu.” 

 

“That’s the one we need to look at right?” 

 

“Yeah, we’ll get it next time.” 

 

“You two are still doing this?” I pouting Naruto comes in while rubbing the sleep out of his eye. “I’m booorreeed.” 

 

Cu snorts and Shirou’s mouth twitch upward for a bit. “Oh?” 

 

“Yeah, since you two don’t work on Sundays I got nothing to do.” The blonde whines while playing with Cu’s ponytail. The older didn’t seem to mind. 

 

“I guess we can take a break.” Shirou says while standing up and Naruto cheers. 

 

The next hour is spent making a light lunch. After that Cu makes a comment about how children shouldn’t be trapped in a house all day and Naruto sides with him. That’s how they end up going to the park. 

 

Naruto is all for it the second the trip is mentioned and nearly runs out the house barefoot and without a jacket. Shirou catches him in time and dresses him appropriately. 

 

“It aint that cold out!” Naruto whines. 

 

“Says the five year old about to run out the house without shoes on.” Shirou deadpans and hands Naruto the small jacket he bought for him. Naruto stares at it before slipping it on. The piece of clothing looks two sizes too big for him but he’ll grow into it. 

  
  


Naruto practically drags them out of the house, which is a funny sight. 

“Park, park, park!” 

 

“Calm down kiddo!”

 

“This the first time I get to the park with someone!” 

 

The statement makes them falter and Cu heaves a sigh of frustration. He bends down, picks Naruto up and places him on his shoulders. “There, now we can go faster.” 

 

“Oh!” Naruto perks up as they turn towards the streets. “Haha, everyone looks short!” Cu huffs out a laugh but Shirou keeps quiet. He eyes how the people are looking at them. Most were whispering and looking them up and down. Other people seemed to be carrying on with their own work. 

 

Naruto points out things and makes a few silly comments about how some people have bald spots in the middle of their heads and how people look like dwarfs. Cu only laughs but Shirou mumbles something about being respectful. 

 

They make it to the park in a few minutes. Cu bends down so Naruto can climb off and the child practically dashes for the swings. 

 

“There’s not that people here..” Cu mumbles.

 

“Well, it is Sunday. I take it they’d rather stay indoors and it is getting colder.” 

 

Cu takes out a cigarette from his jacket and lights it with a lighter. “Well they’re missin’ out on a good day.” 

 

Shirou raises an eyebrow, “Isn’t that Benkei’s lighter?” 

  
“Shh, she doesn’t have to know.”

 

A moment of comfortable silence sets between them as they watch Naruto try to swing on the swingset. Which ends miserably the first few times because the boy always ends up letting go and falling. 

 

Or maybe he was trying to jump? 

 

After the third time Shirou sighs and decides to help him and actually give him a lesson in the physics of it. Which ends up with him pushing the small child. 

 

Cu watches in amusement as Naruto nearly swings back into the archer. 

 

Then something catches his eyes. 

 

A little thing, more like a little girl. Behind the ONLY tree in the middle of the park. 

 

She’s just… watching them. 

 

More like she’s watching Naruto. The little girl is mostly behind the tree, only her head poking from around it. Cu can clearly see the dark hair and pale eyes. 

 

He wonders if Shirou and Naruto noticed. If they did they didn’t say anything about it. 

 

Still, was the little lass shy? Then again she is alone. 

 

“Hey,” Cu tapped her shoulder.

 

The girl squeals and sure enough it gains all of their attention. Shirou looks over to his direction and Naruto seems to look confused. Cu places both hands on her shoulders and bends down to he level to calm her down. 

 

“Hey now, I was just wondering why you’re only watchin’. Didn’t mean to scare ya missy.” 

 

“O-Oh.” She breathed out while looking at the ground. “I-um, I just…” 

 

Seeing as how this wasn’t getting anywhere Cu decided to ask a different question.

 

“What’s ya name missy?” 

 

“Um- Hyuuga Hinata!” Her voice cracks at the end of it and she becomes a bit more flustered. Cu pegged her as an overthinker or maybe she wasn’t used to talking to people? In a way it reminded him of Naruto and the way he was around strangers. He didn’t like that. 

 

“Hm, well you can call me Cu missy. Why don’t you go play with Naruto? It’s pretty boring being here by yourself right?” 

 

The small Hyuuga seemed to play with her fingers as she looked over to where Naruto and Shirou were. 

 

“I’ve never been around anyone my age…” She says it quietly. “I never have um time to play so-so…” 

 

“Welp! Today’s your lucky day! Naruto I found ya a new friend!” 

 

“Yatta!” The small blonde dashed over in seconds. Shirou stares in amazement at the small blonde before following after him. 

 

“Hi! I’m Naruto!” 

 

“Hi-Hinata…”

 

There was a beat of silence before Naruto does that big grin of his. 

 

“Wanna see how far I can jump off the swingset?” 

~~~~

 

Uchiha Itachi sits in the trees that surround the park. From where he is perched he was a clear view of the four individuals in the park. He could see Naruto dragging the little girl to the swingset with a nagging Emiya behind the two. Chulainn follows a slower pace with his hands behind his head. 

 

It was weird. 

 

The way Chulainn just walks up to the Hyuuga heiress without a care in the world and just touches her. If any of the Hyuuga’s household guards were around they would have attacked. Maybe Chulainn didn’t know of her status? Most likely because Emiya didn’t have a reaction to the child either.

 

He shifts a bit, watching the two children playing. They remind him of his little brother Sasuke. He was around the same age as Naruto and the Hyuuga heiress. Maybe he would get along with them? 

 

“Yo.” Crow flickers in his side view, giving a wave. Itachi nods. 

 

“Where have you been?” 

 

“Checking on the captain’s squad in the hospital.” He said in the sing song like voice. 

 

Itachi snorts. “How are they doing.” 

 

“Tenzo’s well. Captain is still in bandages. I checked with the head nurse and she said it might be awhile for them to heal him. The hospital is understaffed and most medic-nins are rookies.” 

 

Itachi hums, which means captain was going to be out for a few days. 

 

“What’s the kid up to?”

 

“Apparently he has made friends with the Hyuuga heiress.” 

 

“No shit?” Crow asked incredulously. Then looked at the playground. “Heh, you don’t see that everyday. I wonder how Hyuuga-sama’s gonna react to that.” 

 

“He probably won’t say much. They aren’t in any danger.” 

 

“The kid just launched himself off the swingset-  _ holy shit _ how did he catch him?!”

 

Shisui was correct, the two men had made some distance away from the swingset. Naruto had decided that he was gonna swing as high and fast as possible and decided to jump the last minute. 

 

Only for Emiya to become a blur and catch him. 

 

Chulainn is there in a split second as well as Emiya scolds the small child in his arms. The poor Hyuuga heiress is left staring wide eyed. Naruto seems to be laughing rather hard and Emiya shakes his head. 

 

There are a few moments before Emiya places Naruto down and the blonde runs back to the swingset. 

 

“That was ….?” Itachi starts.

 

“Not a shunsin.” Shisui says through his mask with all seriousness. There is a small but of tension in the air.

 

~~~~

 

“Cu Chulainn you are a man child,” Shirou deadpans as he watched the man hang upside down from the jungle gym. 

 

“Oh come on Shirou. It's not like they had these things when i was around. All we had were trees and the forests. There were no things called playgrounds.” The Irishman has so much joy in his tone as he swings back and forth a bit to grab another bar. “Seriously, whoever thought of this contraption for kids is a genius!”

 

Shirou snorts and climbs up to sit at the top instead of being more adventurous than the other. “Seriously Cu.”

 

“You ever played on one of these when you were a kid?” The Irishman asked suddenly. He was somehow lying between a few bars, his legs over a bar but his waist under one.

 

Shirou narrows his eyes, and he has to actually dig in his mind for an answer. He gets a foggy view and a few hazes of voices.

 

“I think i did. However I think I was the one that favoured the swings.”

 

“Oh?”

 

“Hn,” the archer nodded. “It was fun to hear the wind in your ears and have your feet off the ground.” he shrugged. 

 

Cu listens as he watches the two children on the swing. He then looks toward Shirou, seeing how the other had a certain look in his eyes.

 

He also takes note, of how Shirou’s eyes sparkle.

 

There a honey brown one second and then they go back to that dull gray.

 

Cu hums.

 

~~~~

“Can we try mochi?” Naruto asks, lightly tugging on Shirou’s hair. The blonde was on Shirou’s shoulders while Hinata was on Cu’s shoulder. 

 

“Huh, we just got dango!” Shirou says with a sigh. Naruto pouts. 

 

“Can we try some tomorrow?” 

 

“Fine fine.” 

 

Cu snorts and shakes his head. On his shoulders Hinata was eating her own stick of dango. She had calmed down some after playing with Naruto for a few hours at the park. She was a pleasant little thing. She was still a nervous when it came to talking. 

 

Speaking of her. 

 

“Oi, missy. Where ya live?” 

 

Shirou seemed to take interest in the question and looks to her. She pauses from eating another piece of dango. 

 

“The Hyuuga com-compound.” 

 

“Hyuuga compound…?” Cu raised an eyebrow. Shirou seemed to hum and Naruto makes a noise.

 

“Yeah, it’s on the other side of the village with those big ‘ol gates and trees and stuff.” The boy starts to sway side to side and Shirou adjusts his grip on his legs.

 

“If we’re going there we should head there now, it’s starting to get dark.” The archer comments while walking. True enough the sky was starting to blend into an orange and purple. 

 

“I-I can show you the way. I know how to get there from here.” Hinata says in a meek voice. 

 

“That won’t be necessary.” A voice from behind them. Hinata squeaks as they turn around . 

 

The man before them has the same eyes as her and long dark brown hair. He’s dressed in white and it kinda reminds them of a lord. 

 

“Hinata, I see you’ve escaped your tutors.” He comments. 

 

“I’m s-sorry tou-san.” 

 

Oh, so this guy was her father. 

 

Cu bends down to let the little lady off. She climbs down as runs toward her father. The man places a hand on her head before looking back towards the two men. 

 

“I thank you two for watching over her. It seems the other members of the family were looking for her.” 

 

“I-I am sorry father-”

 

“It’s fine, it just means they need to do a better job.” Her father reassures the young girl. 

 

Shirou hums and Cu snorts. 

 

“It's no problem! Hinata-chan was fun to play with!” Naruto says it loud and proud and Shirou takes notice at how the girl’s face went read a the ‘chan’ part. Oh my it’s starting isn’t it?

 

The man’s lips twitch in a small smile.

 

“I see. I haven’t introduced myself yet. I am Hyuuga Hiashi, the current head of the Hyuuga clan.” 

 

Oh. 

Oh shit-

 

“DOES THAT MEAN HINATA’S A PRINCESS?!” Naruto blurts out and Shirou winces. His enhanced hearing making him cry on the inside. Boy this child had a set of lungs. 

 

“Congrats Naruto you befriended a princess.” Cu pats the blonde’s head. Hinata is turning more red and Lord Hyuuga looks amused. 

 

“Ah, anyway. I’m Emiya Shirou. This one-” He points at Cu and the Irishman has to raise an eyebrow at the way he’s being introduced, “Chulainn Cu.” 

 

Cu snorts. He never understood the action of speaking your surname first and then you first name. 

 

“It’s nice to meet the both of you. However, we need to get back home and I have a meeting to return to.” The man bows and so does Hinata before turning. 

 

“If you two ever see her unattended again feel free to let her join you.” He calls over his shoulder as they walked down the street. 

 

“I have friend that’s a princess.” Naruto says with a grin, causing Shirou to shake his head with a tired smile. 

~~~~~~~

 

It’s three days later when it happens. 

 

Cu is running an errand for Benkei, one of the many things he has to do with his job. (He isn’t mad because he gets to run around the village a lot and use a lot of energy.) When he runs into the Hyuuga princess again.

 

She has a companion with her as well. 

 

It’s a boy, long brown hair with some type of dark band covering his forehead. Hinata spots him first and tugs on the boy’s sleeve to get his attention. The boy frowns  at him. 

 

Hinata on the other hand makes her way over to the Irishman, leaving the boy behind and chasing her. Cu snorts. 

 

“Hello there missy.” Cu bends down to her height and Hinata makes a small smile. The boy behind her has a stoic facial expression. 

 

“Th-This is my cousin Neji-kun. We-We are lost-”

 

“We are not!” The boy snaps, a bit of a flush appearing on his face. Cu raises an eyebrow. 

 

“Oh?”

 

“Hinata-chan away from her retainers and I was sent to retrieve her.” 

 

Cu doesn’t know what it is but something about the boy is irking him. It’s just the way he talks is wrong for a child his age. 

 

“Then just walk back home missy.” 

 

“This is the third time today that she has run away.” 

 

Cu makes a face of surprise. Hinata didn’t seem like the type to run away. She was so quiet and little and nervous all of the time.

 

Said girls was currently looking at the ground, red faced and playing with her fingers. 

 

“Hm,” Cu rubs his chin, “I’m on an errand right now. You two can help me out for the day if ya want.” He pats Hinata on the head and the boy seems to look offended by the action. 

 

Hinata smiles, “Is Naruto-kun here too?” 

 

“He’s back at the tea house, but I’m sure the Lady wouldn’t mind you two there as well.” 

~~~~~~

 

Shirou stares at Cu. 

 

Cu stares at Shirou. 

 

Naruto stares at Hinata then her cousin. 

 

Hinata stares at Naruto, Neji then her father. 

 

Lord Hyuuga has an unreadable expression on his face as he stands in the doorway to the room of the tea house. It was specifically for employees only (the children were allowed in it since they were learning a few things as well). 

 

Hinata hides behind Neji. Neji shifts uncomfortably under the Lord’s gaze. 

 

Benkei lets out a puff of smoke from her pipe.

 

“Well?” The Hyuuga lord asks. 

 

“It was my intention to bring Hinata-chan back but we got … side tracked.” Neji speaks up. 

 

“How?” 

 

“First we went to the clothing store-” Cu starts.

 

“Then we had to pick up and organize the tea-” Naruto. 

 

“Then we had to learn to make the tea-” Neji. 

 

“Th-Then Benkei-sama taught us how to p-pour it- “ Hinata.

 

“Then I taught them how to sew a few clothes and clean a few kunai-” Shirou.

 

“Then we had lunch-” Benkei. 

 

“And now you’re here.” Back to Cu. 

 

Lord Hyuuga pinched his the bridge of his nose, “You did all this in a span of four hours?” He hissed out. 

 

They all looked at each other then back at him and nodded. 

~~~~~~

 

The Sunday Lord Hiashi appeared at their doorstep with a content Hinata and a stoic Neji. 

 

“I’ll pick them up around seven.” Then he left Shirou in the doorway with the two children. 

 

Shirou does not know how the Lord Hyuuga managed to find their address but he lets the two children in anyway. 

  
  
  


The Hokage is amused. He is positive that if Danzo got wind of this he would be screaming at him but he doesn’t care. 

 

“You seem to be in a good mood Hokage-sama.” Shikaku states as he hands the Hokage some documents. 

 

The Hokage chuckles, “It seems that Emiya and Chulainn are on good terms with Lord Hiashi.” 

 

Shikaku sighs, he’s seen to the new additions to the group around the village. He is surprised that Hiashi let two outsiders handle the heiress and his nephew. From what he had heard and seen the Hyuuga are strict when it came to outsiders. 

 

Or Hiashi just didn’t let the rest of the clan know. 

 

Whatever it was it was troublesome and none of his business. 

 

“Hokage-sama you are plotting something.” Shikaku could tell by the way the man was chuckling. 

 

“In due time, Shikaki, in due time. Now I need you to contact Inoichi from the T&I department…” 

 

~~~~~~

 

“How in the hell did they managed to get the Hyuuga of all people on their side?!” Shisui incredulously. Across from him, on another branch, Kakashi only sighs. This was too much. 

 

“Well, they took care of his daughter more than once. Not to mention his nephew. Plus Naruto gets along with them.” 

 

“Why do I get the feeling that the Hyuuga clan will be out for blood…?” Tenzou asks more to himself. 

 

Shisui drops his head, a sweat drop appearing on the side of it. “I did not sign up for this!” 

 

“Shh idiot!” Tenzou scolds the Uchiha, “We are ANBU guards. Act like it.” 

 

“Oh there you all are!” 

 

The squeak that came out of Shisui will be forever remembered by Kakashi and he can’t help but to snicker as the Uchiha nearly fell out the tree at the sound of Emiya above him.  

 

“When the hell-” 

 

“I already knew you all were here.” The archers says while looking down at them. He’s perched on the branch of Itachi’s tree. Kakashi looked over to the boy as if asking why he didn’t say anything.

 

Itachi only shrugged. 

 

“Anyway, I came up here to ask if you all would be joining us for dinner or not. Naruto wants to see you again watchdog.” 

Kakashi makes a noise at the nickname. 

 

“Dinner?” Shisui perks up. Kakashi could feel the face palm tenzou was doing. 

 

“We do not require any Emiya-san.” Itachi speaks up  first. 

 

“Why ‘da hell are you all whisperin?” Chulainn appears beside Tenzou.

 

“Where the fuck--”

 

“I smelled and heard all of you. Why are you all hiding in the trees?” 

 

Apparently these two men had not fucking idea what they were or what their jobs were. It’s that or they just didn’t give a damn. Seriously, who the fuck in their right mind just suddenly appear around ANBU guards!?

 

“Do you two won’t your heads chopped off!? What is wrong with you two?” Kakashi hisses. 

 

“I was just wondering if they wanted dinner or not. It’s bad of me not to ask right?” Emiya says while shrugging. 

 

“We are guards that are not supposed to be seen.” 

 

“You guys aren’t doing a good job at that…” 

 

“That’s because you too are not normal.” Tenzou says lowly. 

 

“If it matters can I have rice?” Shisui pipes up. Tenzou actually facepalms. 

 

“Sure. We’re having that stuff called yakisoba.” Chulainn says without a care in the world. 

 

“Anyone else?” Emiya asks.

  
  


They end up eating dinner in the trees and Shisui shunshins into the kitchen to deliver the dishes then shunshins back to his post. 

 

They agree to never mention this in their reports. 

  
  


~~~

 

“I’m happy they fired that old guy at the desk.” Cu says. Shirou was too, the old man always gave them a dirty look whenever they came into the library. Now the person at the desk was a young man that only spared them a glance when they asked for something specific. He also gave Naruto biscuits and let him sit behind the desk while Shirou and Cu went off to search for books. 

 

Naruto nods in agreement while taking another bite of his biscuit. “Whatcha tou go’ anywa?” 

 

Shirou gives Naruto a deadpan expression and flicks his nose. “Don’t talk with food in your mouth. We got something on the arts of fuinjutsu.” 

 

Naruto’s nose scrunched up in a pout and swallowed before speaking again. “What’s that?” 

 

“You’d know about it if you read the book I told you to read.” 

 

“I did read it! It’s just hard to remember some stuff.” The little blonde scratched his cheek. “‘N some of the words keep switching up and it’s hard to read sometimes.” 

 

Shirou frowns, he’d have to address that with Benkei sometime. 

 

“Alright, we’ll just have to help you next time.” 

 

Naruto groans. 

 

Weasel appears and the boy squeaks. 

 

“Apologies Naruto-kun,” He says before turning to Shirou and Cu, “The Hokage requests you all once more. Dog and Crow are around to watch Naruto.” 

 

Shirou would never get used to being teleported into the man’s office. Judging by the way Cu always curses when it happens he thinks the Irishman doesn’t like it either. 

 

“Gentlemen.” The Hokage greets. 

 

“Hokage-sama/ Yo!”

 

The man is amused by their responses, which mean he’s in a good mood today. 

 

“Your papers.” He says while handing them two different folders. They walk to his desk and take them. 

 

“It’s basically background information about you two since you all aren’t from Konoha. Read it and memorize it. Don’t be afraid to ask any questions.” 

They took time reading them. 

 

“It’s very vague.” Shirou asks. 

 

“Yeah but that’s better right?” Cu asks and the Hokage nods. 

 

“So far people just know you all as some of the many that merged in with the village during reconstruction. They asks for specifics make it up and stick to it. These are just for actual proof of citizenship.”

 

  
The two men nod. 

 

“Another matter I wish to discuss is your… living arrangements. You two told me you were living in an old vacant estate in the forest. I didn’t tell you while we were talking last time but that estate belonged the the Hokage before me- Naruto’s father.

 

The man held a hand up to stop them from speaking. 

 

“The only people that know of that estate or the ANBU that are stationed there watching Naruto, you, me, and Lord Hyuuga.” 

 

“That’s how he found out?” Cu asks and the Hokage nods. 

 

“You two already know that Naruto doesn’t know of his family because the information was voted to be withheld from him. I assure you it won’t be withheld from him for long.” -Because he was going to do something about a few specific people but he would not let them know that. 

 

“You’re going to tell him soon Hokage-sama?” 

 

“I plan to tell him next year on his birthday.” Hokage answers as he knocks his pipe against his ashtray. To tell the truth he’s not sure how Naruto would take it. He expects the boy to be hurt about the information he was keeping from him. However he didn’t know how the boy would act after knowing. Would his attitude change? Would he be happier? 

 

“Grandpa-”

 

Shirou nearly chokes at the nickname and the Hokage raises an eyebrow.

 

“ -can I call ya grandpa? Naruto does it so sorry if I’m rude. Who is exactly keeping Naruto from knowing all this?” 

 

“The civilian council.” The old man says it bluntly. 

“Makes sense.” Shirou says while crossing his arms over his chest. “Ordinary people fear what they can’t understand. Fear turns into hatred, a never ending cycle.” 

 

The Hokage hums, “But you two are not ordinary people.”

 

“Right.” Cu says while sitting on the couch to the side. He’s given up on being formal. If he’s out of line the Hokage will tell him. 

 

“Adding on to that, have you two figured out the origins of your summonings?” 

 

“No.” Shirou answers, “We’re still doing research and we have a suspicion that the fuinjutsu you all have will have something to do with it.” 

 

“Fuinjutsu, the art of seals to put it vaguely. It’s a very destructive yet magnificent thing if you can understand it.” 

 

“You wouldn’t have anyone proficient in it? A teacher of some sort?” Cu asks. 

 

The Hokage pressed his lips together in a tight line. “I know of one. It’ll be hard to contact him but I will inform he’s needed.” 

 

“Are you sure he’ll help us Hokage-sama?”

 

“He’ll help,” The old man brought his pipe to lips. At the mention of Naruto and how he had caretakers, Jiraiya would crash through the front gates of Konoha to see who claimed his godson.

~~~~~~~~

_ Emiya can win a war with just his cooking alone. That’s what Shisui says. _

 

_ I still have yet to find out how they managed to get into Sensei’s home. I know the Hokage knows since he is not concerned after they had a ‘talk’.  _

 

_ I’m thinking Sensei has something to do with them being here but- it’s confusing.  _

 

_ Moving on,  _

 

_ The Hyuugas seem fond of them, well Lord Hyuuga does, which is a surprise. The Hyuuga’s do not tolerate outsiders from what I have heard. I’m not sure why the man is allowing his daughter and nephew around them. I’ll add it to the list of mysteries about the two.  _

 

_ Hatake Kakashi _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes:
> 
> 1\. Yeah, Hiruzen will be more awesome in this. I like him as a character but goddam the man could have done SO MUCH MORE. I am here for that.
> 
> 2\. About the Shinobi council vs. Civilian council, to me it makes more sense. The general public fears more than the trained people. Not to mention I plan to show off the Shinobi clans in this fic to the civilian can go suck it. So expect more from them.
> 
> Fun fact: This fanfic wasn't originally named Teach Your Children Well. I basically had a bs name and it was called "These Kids Need Hella Teaching." I know, I know, criticize me in the comments.
> 
> Suggested songs: Starfall- Two Steps from Hell; Point Zero- Yuki Kajiura


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy-- I forgot to post this chapter on AO3! I'm sorry! Don't kill me!

**INTERLUDE I**

**CHAPTER:?**

He's been here before. He knows it. It was like a sense of deja-vu. He's been here before but he does not know when or where this is.

The sky is orange but every now and then there is a pulse and blue splashes before returning to orange. There are gears in the sky that slowly turn, they're not close enough to touch each other yet they move in sync anyway.

He blinks and looks forward, there are swords in the ground. So many of them. Some are are rusty. Some are broken, some are bloody.

Blue eyes blink.

"I'm not proud of it." The person beside him speaks. Deep voice wavering. He's crouched beside the child, staring forward but Naruto can't see his face. Everytime he tries to his vision is blurred or he's forced to look forward again.

"I hate it."

A sword appears lodged in the man's shoulder.

"I was foolish."

Another one in between his shoulder blades.

"I thought I could save everyone."

One in his leg.

Naruto's legs cannot move but he wants to move for some reason. He needs to move.

"It's okay." The blonde whispers. "I'll make sure you won't have to fight anymore."

"That's not the right thing to say."

Naruto sucks in a breath.

"Then I'll make sure you're happy."

A small smile.

Naruto wakes up.

_Huh?_

His head feels fuzzy and he's warm. He looks around his room, it is still night time.

He can't remember the dream.

He shrugs and goes back to sleep.

* * *

"Alright Alright, twelve pancakes for the man-child."

"Call me whatever the hell ya want Shirou, I'm the one eating your cooking."

"Be happy I didn't put laxatives in the batter you overgrown guard dog."

"I love you too mother."

Shirou ignores him and gives Naruto his plate, "and ten pancakes for the little bother."

"Don't you mean brother?" Cu raises an eyebrow.

"I know what I said."

Meanwhile, Naruto was too busy stuffing his face with pancakes made from a god. Man Shirou's cooking was the best!

Shirou takes off his apron and hangs it on the hook beside the fridge. He rolls his eyes at the two currently stuffing their faces. He walks over to the door on the opposite end of the kitchen that leads to the back porch and slides it open.

"You all can eat!"

Cue the blurs appearing and four masked people in the doorway. Shirou lets them all in and slides the door close.

"Your plates are on the island."

" **ARIGATOU OKAA-SAN!"** They all chorused with a bow. A tick mark appears on Shirou's temple because they  _always_ do that. Ever since they caught Cu calling him mother while he was cooking.

Cu snorts from the table and Naruto is trying (and failing) to steal a pancake off the man's plate. Shirou grabs his own plate of food from next to the stove, noting how the guards at the island are almost done with their food. He then takes his seat at the table with Cu and Naruto.

"Do ou to ave ork oay?" The blonde asks. Shirou gives him a deadpanned stare and flicks his nose.

"Try that again when you're done chewing."

Naruto's nose scrunched up but he finishes chewing and swallows. "I asked if you two had work today?"

"We work every day except Sunday Naruto."

Naruto pouts, "But what am I supposed to do? Benkei-sama makes me read for an hour and then work on my handwriting. After that, there's nothing to do at the Tea House unless Cu-nii has to run errands." He whines it out.

"Shirou take him with you." Cu says while trying to steal a pancake from the archer. He is nearly stabbed.

"Hm? Tired of looking after him?" Cu doesn't even flinch at the fork between his fingers.

"Nah, yesterday he was so bored the Geisha girls in training started to dress him up-"

"You said you wouldn't talk about it!" Naruto screeched. There's a collective amount of chuckles from the island and Naruto snaps his head in the direction of his guards. His ears are red and he groans.

"Now everyone knooooowwwwsssss."

Shirou eats another slice his food to keep from laughing. "There's nothing wrong with being dressed up Naruto."

"I was okay with the clothes! Then they tried to put face paint on me!"

Laughter now and Naruto throws his fork, which is caught by Dog.

"No throwing in the kitchen Naruto-chan~" He sings.

"FIGHT ME!" and the blonde hell lion is on him in seconds.

The rest outright laughs at Naruto's sad attempt to tackle the guard. However the blonde got the last laugh by somehow pouring syrup all over the other.

So Shirou ends up taking Naruto to work with him. Mainly because the small blonde attaches himself to his leg while he was getting ready. Shirou didn't even try to fight him because he knows how stubborn the child is.

"You work at the weapons shop too?"

"Uh huh." Shirou takes out the spare key the Mitsashi's gave him and unlocked the door to the shop. He knows it'll be a good hour before they come so he does not bother to flip the closed sign over. He holds the door open for the blonde and the child walks in first.

"WWooooaaahhhh.~"

Shirou hangs his coat on the rack and places his hand on Naruto's shoulder before the child can run off.

"Okay, before you run away like the hell lion you are, a few rules: One, don't touch the sharp shit. Two, anything in glass is in glass for a reason, same thing for anything covered up. Three, there's some kind of mutant spider in here and I have been tracking it down for three weeks. If you see don't hesitate to throw  _everything_  at it."

"Everything?"

"Everything you can get your hands on. Now I'm going to show you what I do around here…"

* * *

"Emiya-kun! We're here!" A female voice calls out. To Naruto it sounded like someone his age.

"We're in the back!' Shirou calls out. He was in the middle of making a standard katana -the traditional way mind you. Naruto seemed to be interested enough to be quiet and watch, asking questions when he wanted.

"We?" Cue a girl with twin buns popping in the room. Brown eyes landed on Naruto and she made an 'oh' expression.

"Naruto, this is Ten-Ten."

"Sup." She greets with a smile and wave. Naruto waves back a bit timidly.

"Oh, no no. We ain't having that." She shakes her head, "C'mon we're going to have some fun!" She grabs the blonde by his hand.

"Don't you have school?"

"We got out early! C'mon Naruto!"

"Okay, Okay. So there is a demon spider in your shop?" Naruto thought Shirou had just said that to make him scared and keep him from touching things. Ten-ten nods her head with a small frown.

"The first time I saw it I was helping a customer and it popped out right after they left. I nearly screamed my head off it looked so weird and wrong." She shivers. "My parents were out but Emiya-kun was there. He saw it and threw a whole table it at!"

"Really?!"

"Yes!" She shouts, not caring if she was drawing attention to them or not while they walked down the street. "Then I tried to throw some equipment at it and it growled- what kind of spider growls?!"

"A demon spider."

"Right?!"

It was fun talking to Ten-ten, after meeting her parents and dragging him out the shop she asked him if just wanted to walk. She was nice and didn't seem to shy away from him.

"Okay but why not, you know, ask someone to kill it?"

"We did, they ran away." Ten-ten deadpans. "Now we just sit food out for it in that one corner and prays it doesn't eat us." She stops at a vending machine and seems to look over products. "Want one?"

"I've never had one before…"

"Really? It's soda! You're getting one." She slips in a few coins and presses a button. The bottle inside falls to the bottom. "That one's yours, it's just the normal flavour. Try it."

Naruto sticks his hand in the vending machine and takes it. The last time he tried to get something from the vending machine some lady started bad mouthing him.

He looks at the bottle before looking at Ten-ten.

"Oh right. You gotta push that ball thingy in to drink some- lemme do it- there. "

Naruto takes a swig of it-

Huh-

Wow that's good!

Ten-ten laughs at him. "I take it you like it?" Her only response was Naruto drinking some more. She takes her own bottle and pops it.

"Hey, Naruto how old are you?" They are just sitting on the curve to the shop now.

"Five."

"Really?! You're short for a five-year-old!"

"NUH UH!"

"YUH HUH! I'm six!"

"You're just freakishly tall!"

"Pfffft-"

Naruto huffs and turns away. He doesn't have to hear this!

Ten-ten's giggling makes him pout.

* * *

"Hokage-sama. The weekly report."

"Thank you Kakashi-kun. You have… syrup on your mask."

The guard stiffs and the Hokage swears he hears giggling from one of the corners in his office. He ignores it.

"Anything interesting." He asks as he scans the paper.

"Not much Hokage-sama. The two seem interested in books as of late."

The Hokage-hums, so it seems Emiya and Chulainn were using his permit to its full potential. That's good.

"Where are they now?"

"Chulainn is currently at the teahouse. Emiya is at the Mitsashi's shop. Naruto seems to be with their daughter."

The old man keeps quiet, he remembers the Mitsashi's. They were well known for their rare weapons in their shops. If he remembers correctly their daughter is enrolled in the shinobi academy this year.

Hm, he thinks it's good that Naruto is making friends. First, the two Hyuuga children and the Mitsashi's, not only that they were all around the same age.

"Dismissed."

Kakashi disappears.

Now he has yet another meeting to attend. This one shouldn't last long.

He stands and walks out of his office to the council room. As expected, everyone is there.

Well, everyone that he invited is there.

"Hokage-sama." They all bow.

"Sit." They do and he takes his own seat. "This meeting is to be only between the ones present. A privacy seal has been made."

Some of them have looks of surprises on their faces. Others have a schooled expression.

Nara Shikaku is the first to speak. "I take it this is about Danzo and that council he managed to round up during the reconstruction period Hokage-sama?"

The Hokage smiles.

It's true, somehow, during the period where Konoha was too busy reconstructing itself. Danzo seemed to round himself up a council of his own. The "Civilian" council it was named. During the time Danzo managed to somehow appeal to the civilians and some-fucking-how they managed to win a seat at the council.

The Hokage should have snipped that shit at the bud but at the time it didn't look like an actual council. Danzo had dressed it up. Before the attack, Konoha was a military village with the council having the clan heads and two elders.

Now that that period of time is over, the Hokage is going to change it back to the way it was before the attack. Not only because of the civilian council but because Danzo seemed to be growing in power and there was a lot of suspicious feelings coming off the man.

"Straight to the point? Well, that reduces time anyway. You're correct."

"'Bout time. That man's stinking more than usual Hokage-sama." The head of the Inuzuka clan, Tsume speaks up. "Something ain't right with 'im."

"Rest assured I plan to make a few changes. I came to you all to share some ideas and give a heads up."

* * *

"Ten-Ten bought me a soda!"

"Oh?" Shirou raises an eyebrow. Had Naruto really not tasted a soda before?

"Un! It was nice! Can we buy some next time we go shopping?"

"I suppose." Shirou makes a note to make sure that it is caffeine free because he does not want a sugar high Naruto bouncing off the walls.

They're walking home now. When they dropped by the tea house Benkei said she was closing early for the night and Cu was already gone.

"Oh and she said the soda is good if you put ice cream in it! So we gotta get ice cream!"

Shirou listens to the child ramble, making a mental note on how Naruto was saying 'we.' Even though it has only been a few weeks since he's been living with him.

"Then she called me short… Shirou am I short?"

Without any mercy, "Yes, you're practically a dwarf for someone your age."

Naruto deflates.

"That's why you need to eat things other than ramen."

"But ramen is the food of gods!"

"Ramen is high in sodium and eating it as much as you do at this age will stunt your growth."

Naruto whines. "But- But it's so goooooodd"

"If you want to be as tall as me and Cu you can't keep eating so much ramen."

That seems to make the child perk up. "Really? I can be as tall as you two?"

"Yes. You also have to eat your vegetables."

"NUUUUU~~"

* * *

It's around three o'clock in the morning when they sense something is not right. It's like a chill goes throughout the house and it's not because they didn't have the space heaters on.

Cu is already walking the halls when Shirou slides his door open. The archer isn't surprised at seeing the lancer in all his armor.

"Something ain't right."

"I know. You checked on Naruto?"

"He's sleep. But a few runes around his room for protection."

If the lancer has to resort to that something is definitely wrong. Now that he thinks about it he does not sense anything. He doesn't even sense the Watchdog and his band of misfits, which is really bad.

Shirou goes into spirit form as Cu heads toward the backyard. The lancer has a feeling that Shirou is going to find a high point and if that's the case he needs to look around the property.

He steps outside and as soon as his feet touch the grass he crouches down and places his hand down. There a pulse-

_FUCK_

Gae Bolg answers his call and he doesn't hesitate to intercept the barrage of weapons aimed at him. They bounce off his lance easily and the red spear gives a hum under his fingers.

He growls because whoever it is is in the trees and there's plenty of them. If some other weapons are thrown at him he could safely block them and trace back their origin just as fast. He's pretty sure that Shirou would cover him like last time.

Without another moment of hesitation, he races forward.

Shirou likes high points. He likes overlooking the city because he has the perfect eyesight to pinpoint certain areas. His class type amplifies that.

He also likes the way that one of his arrows goes through a man's head and proceeds to go through the next man's ribs behind him.

He doesn't put that much mana into it because Cu is currently slicing chunks off those shinobi and Shirou doesn't want him to get into the crossfire. He knows Cu could probably dodge and take it but better safe than sorry.

Another thing is the 'shinobi'.

They have masks, like the Watchdog and his friends but they aren't the same. They don't feel the same.

He materializes another sword and knocks is against his bow. He pulls it back as it morphs into an arrow and lets it go. Midway it disperses into more arrows and rains down.

* * *

"27."

"Survivors?"

"Nope."

Shirou looks over the dead bodies littered in the forest. Bodies hung from trees, some torn apart on the ground and others stabbed.

"Found anything suspicious?"

Cu frowned as he bent down towards one of the bodies. He grabbed them by the jaw and opened it. "They have these weird marking on their tongues- look."

Shirou leaned over the other's shoulder to look and grimaced. "What the hell?"

"Would it be wrong to cut it off and see what it is?" The lancer asks not repulsed at the sight at all. Shirou's grimaced turned into a deadpan expression, "You want to do that?"

"Got any better ideas lad?"

"Go ahead I'm not touching that." Okay, he's seen dead bodies, touched dead bodies but still something about cutting off a tongue to 'examine' it just didn't seem right.

"Idiot it ain't like Imma experiment on it. Just gonna use those books we got to make sense of it then I'll burn the thing."

"Whatever whatever. What about the rest of these bodies?"

"We can just leave 'em. I gotta feeling more will show up."

"Ah, an intimidation tactic?"

"If we really wanna intimidate we could just put their heads on stakes and use their fingers and toes to spell _'Fuck You."_

Shirou shakes his head with a smirk. "Do what you have to do already."

It only takes a few seconds to cut the tongue out and they're going back home.

* * *

Naruto wakes up the next day warm and refreshed, oblivious to anything that happened during the night. He shimmies out of bed and towards the bathroom to clean himself. Once that's done he dresses and heads to the kitchen.

Only to run smack dab into Dog.

"Good morning Naruto."

Naruto blinks. Where the heck did he come from?

"Emiya and Chulainn are out at the moment. Emiya placed your plate in the oven." Dog says while turning a page in his book. Naruto swears he hears a small giggle from the man.

"Where's everyone else?"

"On duty. You realized you slept in right?"

Naruto doesn't react right that instant because he's munching on rice. When he's done he just nods.

"Wait- that means I have nothing to dooooo."

Dog reaches up and ruffles his hair, "Finish eating your food."

* * *

"Grandpa we found something interesting!"

"For the love of Kami can you just call him Hokage-sama like everyone else?!"

The Hokage shakes his head at the two men before him.

"You jealous Shirou?"

"I'm sorry I couldn't hear you over your baking. Be a good boy and not let us get in trouble."

"We can go outside right fucking now Shirou."

"You'd love to have a walk-"

"Chulainn I'd appreciate it if you were to not use my couch as a weapon." The Hokage speaks up before the blue man can throw it at the other. Emiya has a smirk on his face and Cu grumbles as he places the couch down.

"Excuse us Hokage-sama."

"I'll overlook it for now. You two said you found something?"

Chulainn takes a small container out his coat pocket and opens it before placing it on the Hokage's desk. It takes a moment for the man to realize that it's a tongue with a seal on it.

"Last night were attacked by twenty-seven people and all of them had that on their tongues," Shirou speaks up. "We haven't looked into it yet. We were wondering if you knew."

"Describe the people?"

"They wore masks, gave off this freaky aura. They were completely covered in black."

They don't miss the way the Hokage clenches the pipe in his teeth. There's only one word going through the Hokage's head and it makes his stomach sour.

Damn that Danzo.

"I know who you speak of. However, I don't know this seal." Which made him uneasy.

"Permission to look into it?"

"Granted."

* * *

The next day Naruto wonders the streets. He does not feel like going to the Tea House and he does not go to the Mitsashi's weapon shop because Ten-Ten had to go back to the academy. He is not sure if Hinata would be around either.

He could go to the park, he's sure a lot of people are not there since it was in the middle of the day. Yeah, that sounds better than just walking around. If he gets bored or tired he will go back to Shirou or Cu.

So he walks to the park.

There are very few people there. Like two at most. There is a black haired woman sitting on a bench and a child climbing the jungle gym.

He hops the fence, manages to avoid the lady's line of vision and makes his way over to the swings.

Now the thing about the swings is that you can see the jungle gym and the benches if you face forward. Basically, you get a whole view of the park and that means that the lady and other kid can see him. Naruto doesn't know why he's so nervous.

Then again he doesn't have Shirou, Cu, Hinata or Ten-Ten with him.

Hm, maybe he should go back-

"Hey, you just gonna stand in front of the swing dobe?"

Naruto whirls around and comes face to face with the child from earlier. Said child has black hair and eyes and currently looking at him in disinterest. He wore shorts and a blue shirt with a high collar.

Naruto scrunched up his nose.

"What'sa dobe?"

"You." The other says with a smirk. "You is a dobe, dobe."

"I ain't a dobe!"

"Yuh huh."

"Nuh-uh."

The other rolls their eyes. "Are you swinging or not dobe?"

Naruto still has a pout on his lips as he marches up to the swing closer to him. Stupid kid calling him a dobe!

Wait he was a kid too! Ugh!

He takes a seat on the swing. "My name isn't dobe. It's Na-ru-to teme!"

Before the other could say anything the lady Naruto sitting on the bench earlier appeared. Now that Naruto looks at her, the boy did look similar to her. Must be his mum.

She smiles in Naruto's direction and Naruto flushes.

"Ah, Satsuki-chan, you've made a friend?"

The boy, Satsuki twitches and Naruto makes a look. Satsuki was a weird name for a boy. Then again Naruto was named after something in ramen.

Well, that's what he likes to think.

The raven boy huffs. "Hai Kaa-san. This is Naruto."

Her smile doesn't falter, "Well, Naruto-kun we have to go for an appointment. If we see you around again don't hesitate to talk with us."

With that, she took the other's hand and they start to walk away.

Naruto watches them as they leave.

* * *

"I met a boy he's weird."

"How so?" Shirou asks as he dries off the dish in his hand.

"He has a girls name!"

"Oh? Nothing wrong with that. Maybe there's some secret meaning to it."

Naruto scrunches up his nose. "Yeah, whatever. He's a bastard anyway- ITAI!"

Shirou had flicked his ear. "No cursing. You're five." Naruto pouts and whines, slamming his hands in the dishwater, which got all over him.

Shirou laughs.

xXx

The Hokage is impressed. How long ago did he send that message? This morning? Now it's what? Nearly ten o'clock at night. Wow, he expected it to take a few days at least.

"Sensei."

Jiraiya sits before him with an unreadable expression on his face. Hokage cannot tell if his former student is serious or scared or maybe it is all rolled up in one.

"Jiraiya I did not expect you to come so early."

"You sent a message saying that my godson was adopted by civilians. I thought Hime had him" Jiraiya deadpans. He takes note of how his sensei's eyes narrow.

"Who told you that information?" Because Hokage does not remember sending Jiraiya anything along those lines.

"An ANBU from that subgroup. I thought it was fishy at first- judging by your current expression I'm right? "

The Hokage nods.

"Anyway, you are correct. Naruto is currently staying with two civilians. I have called them, they should be here shortly."

A few seconds later there is a knock on the door.

"Enter."

The door opens and Naruto pops his head around it and runs in.

"JIJI- Who's this old guy?"

"OI!" Jiraiya wasn't old! Well, compared to Sensei he wasn't old!

Hokage shake his head with a small smile. "This is my student. Jiraiya." Before Naruto could react, "Where are Emiya-san and Chulainn-san?"

"Eh, I ran ahead of them…" Naruto scratches his cheek sheepishly. Hokage sighs and Jiraiya frowns a bit.

"YO! Hokage-Grandpa!"

"I'm giving up on correcting you."

A snort, "Just join us already Shirou, you know you want to!"

Jiraiya has to keep his jaw from dropping because yes he knows that his Sensei is a humble man but calling him Grandpa of all things is a violation is it?

The Hokage clears his throat. The two men look his way.

"Naruto," The Hokage gains the child's attention. Naruto looks at him as he motions toward Jiraiya, "This is your godfather, Jiraiya."

They were expected a reaction from the boy but not the one from Emiya and Chulainn.

" **Where the fuck have you been?"**  They deadpanned at the same time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An: This would be considered one of the short chapters I guess? Haha not much here.
> 
> SO I GAVE IN TO THE GENDERBENDER IDEA BECAUSE WHY NOT? Like a female Sasuke is rare opposed to a female Naruto you know? I think it would be nice. But we'll get into female Sasuke next chapter.
> 
> *Note one. I have also given in to more servants. HOWEVER please do not think a lot of them will come. I do not want to turn this into a harem fic. There's going to be plot dammit! And humor and angst-rip. I already have three potential servants to add and like I mentioned above they might make cameos. I'm willing to take one more suggestion. PLEASE, if you're going to suggest a servant give a valid reason as to how they would fit in the Naruto world, that's okay with killing and NO KINGS. (I'm talking about Gilgamesh, Altria, Arthur (male Altria), Iskander etc.)
> 
> *Note Two. Also, the reason behind Cu and Shirou's summons will come much quicker with the help of Jiraiya-sama Yay.
> 
> *Note Three: Fuck Danzo. That is all.
> 
> Music Suggestions: Thomas Bergersen Fearless


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: The amount of reviews I managed to get in the span of 12 hours is horrifying. I am not used to people making so many reviews on my stories. Not to mention I thought I was doing horribly because this is my first crossover fic. However, I can tell that you guys on FanFiction will give me your honest critiques and helps and I thank you for that!
> 
> *The reason I said no Kings/queens because I've already decided on one and no it not Gil or Altria. I've also decided on an assassin class servant as well. So yeah.
> 
> A few reasons why I am late.
> 
> One is because of finals and end of the semester projects that were assigned in April and May. That took most of my time.
> 
> Two is because I graduated 19th.
> 
> I am also transferring as a sophomore in college (yay).
> 
> **If you read this story on AO3 one of the tags is something along the lines of "Sarutobi's got something special for y'all". Yeah, I plan on using Sarutobi like he's meant to be. He's gonna play a major part in some things.
> 
> **Jiraiya may or may not be getting an ass whooping -cough-
> 
> ** AHEM, NEW SERVANT INCOMING!

 

* * *

Jiraiya has been through many things in his life. He's been through war, his sensei, some beatings from the bathhouse for reasons that shan't be named and Senju Tsunade.

So why is his blood freezing at the sight of these two men staring down at him?

The one with white hair, Emiya he thinks, has a look of clear disappointment on his face. Jiraiya could tell he was being judged.

The blue one- Chulainn- his eyes are just unnerving, to say the least. They look like they should belong on a beast of some sort.

"Gentlemen." Hokage says it sternly because the real person that matter right now is Naruto.

Said boy is just staring at Jiraiya with wide eyes the whole time. Hokage does not know how the child will react. Naruto is unpredictable like that. He could burst into tears or just start screaming at the top of his lungs. The old man would not blame him.

There is silence in the room as the child just stares for a few moments. The Naruto's eyes narrow and he pouts before looking at the Hokage.

The Hokage holds his breath-

"Jiji what's a godfather?"

They all stare at him and Naruto turns to look at all of them. Not knowing that they were internally facepalming. Then again who blamed him?

"Technically speaking," The Hokage starts, "A godparent is someone appointed by parents to take care of their child if something were to happen to them."

It takes a few moments for the child to process the definition before he whips around back to face Jiraiya.

"HUH?! WHERE WERE YOU WHEN I WAS A BABY?!"

Now that was a question to be expected.

Jiraiya heaved a sigh.

"When you were a baby I was in Konoha. However, I couldn't gain custody of you."

"Custard?" The blonde repeated, confusion over his small face. If this was a conversation with a lighter atmosphere Jiraiya would have chuckled at the boy's word choice.

"Basically the right to keep you with me. I, Hime, and Sensei fought for you."

"But where have you been?! You-You could have stayed right? Or visit? Or-Or-" His bottom lip started quivering and tears start to form at the corner of his eyes.

Cu has to keep in a snarl. Shirou has an unreadable expression on his face. They both stare at the older man in front of Naruto. Then the child is furiously wiping his face.

Oh, Kami this is torture!

Shirou is the one that kneels down and places a hand on Naruto's head and that causes the dam to break.

Their respect for Konoha and its certain individuals has gone down lower.

* * *

_Maa, I forgot to write a report yesterday._

_No, it was not because of Emiya's cooking (who am I kidding)._

_We discovered a large number of corpses around sensei's estate. Most have been dismembered. Some have arrows sticking out of them, others are just not identifiable. Which is not disturbing but still raises questions._

_One of them was missing a tongue._

_The real icing on the cake was the FUCK YOU spelled out using fingers and toes. (Shisui gagged and I snorted. I know I don't have the best humor, judge me.)_

_Of course, all this had to happen while we were rotating positions._

_Ugh._

_Now all three of them were called to the Hokage's office. I'm not sure what is going on but I got wind that Jiraiya-sama is also in Konoha. Which means something really good or something really bad is about to happen._

_Till further notice,_

_Hatake Kakashi_

~~~~~~  
Naruto cried himself to sleep.

Cu wrapped his coat around the small child and lai him on one of the couches in the office. The boy was still sniffling in his sleep.

There is silence for a few moments as the lancer rubs the boy's back. Shirou has taken a seat on the other side of the couch with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Well, since no one is saying anything, I guess I'll start," Shirou says as he takes note of how Cu is drawing a small rune on the underside of the jacket. From where Hokage and Jiraiya are seated it is unseen.

Cu gives him a small nod.

"We've already given this information to the Hokage. He has agreed to keep it a secret, we hope that you will do so as well."

Jiraiya furrows his brows and takes note of how his Sensei has a serious expression on his face.

"Alright."

"To put it bluntly we are servants- let me explain before you ask questions please," Shirou says before the Sannin can speak. Jiraiya keeps his mouth shut.

"We are beings called servants. We are usually summoned through a ritual that takes place during a certain war. We'll explain that later because there is a bit of unresolved information about that. That is because when servants are usually summoned there is a master present. When we were summoned it was five years ago and Naruto was an infant, which leads to that unresolved bit.

"Now, we servants are summoned to fight in this war I mentioned earlier. This war is named The Holy Grail war. Its where seven servants are supposed to be summoned and we kill each other. The souls go into the grail and it is supposed to grant the victor a wish. I'll tell you now, there is not a grail here. Which is mind wrenching because if that were true then we would not be able to manifest. However, I think we are still alive because of the demon inside of Naruto."

Jiraiya nearly chokes and Shirou has to stomp down his own morbid sense of humor and not smirk.

"That's the crash course of what's going on so far. We've had Naruto for a month and might I say he was doing quite well under our care until now." Shirou smiles and it is ice. The smile is cold and as sadistic as a murderer.

Heh.

"Yep!" Cu pipes up, "He's gaining the weight he needs, he's got a roof over his head, he's got clothes that aren't about to give up on life and he doesn't have to worry about getting kicked out anywhere. I imagine these things are a necessity for all five-year-olds ya know. Just can't quite put a finger on why the hell he was neglected. Makes me a bit mad."

Shirou cracks his knuckles, "Moving away from the much-needed lecture about what a child should need in life… Hokage, I highly recommend you reevaluate how you run your village. No offense- it's shit."

Sensei doesn't even flinch or make a move. The old man doesn't seem to register the act of disrespect.

"I know." Hokage answers. Believe him he knows. It's been five years already and he's already seen the signs.

He assures them that things are going to change.

"You said that you two were servants?" Jiraiya speaks up with a frown on his face.

"Yes. We are tied to Naruto because he carries what are called Command Seals. With them, he has full power over us. He does not know that yet though."

Jiraiya is mumbling something to himself before he asks something.

"Can servants be a synonym for summons? Or familiars perhaps?"

Shirou raises an eyebrow and Cu nods. "More or less."

Jiraiya's eyes went wide and even the Hokage is concerned now.

Jiraiya groaned as he closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Minato you gotta be fucking kidding me. I swear when I die I'm kicking your ass."

"Care to explain Jiraiya?" Hokage asks. Jiraiya groans once more.

"That student of mine really was a genius sensei. Too much of a genius. He managed to cause-" he motions towards Shirou and Cu- "this."

"Elaborate."

"Hai. During the time when Kushina was a month or two away from her due date, Minato Was already looking for ways to- you know seal or get rid of the Kyuubi if it were to escape." When Hokage nods he continues, "He came to me talking about space and time seals along with information about summonings. His original theory was to try and 'unsummon' the Kyuubi. Since that was literally unheard of it meant it was going to take time coming up with those theories so he tried something else. He had three plans. One was to try and defeat the Kyuubi. Basically, he was going to use his time to stock up and if the Kyuubi did get free he would try to lure it away from Konoha and fight it off.

The second option was more of a fail safe. Honestly, I thought he was crazy when he told me what it was. He told me that Kushina managed to pull up some seals from Uzu that she kept in storage to help him. They came across some elaborate seals that came from her grandmother? Great Grandmother?"

"Uzumaki Mito?"

"Hai." Jiraiya nods, "I didn't look much into them because I couldn't make much of them. Only Kushina could make heads and tails of it- I'm trying to keep it short here so I can get where I need to get. Anyway, these were meant to be failsafes if Minato were to die. I thought it was ridiculous because Kushina told me it had not been tested yet.

"Anyway Minato gave me the crash course of how it's supposed to work. The seals were drawn in three locations. The first two activated if they died- one activated if Minato died and the other would activate if Kushina died. The third was supposed to activate if the first two failed to activate in time. I don't know if they were supposed to activate the second they stopped breathing or if there was a certain amount of time hat needed to pass. They never told me." The sannin winced. It was an uncomfortable topic because he could not do much in that situation since he was trying to help gain more resources and fighters for them. He didn't know how Minato and Kushina placed and designed the seals.

He sighs.

"All I know is that one was put in a room in the estate. The other was put in the basement and the third one was supposed to be in that shed they had in the backyard."

Before the two servants could ask anything the Hokage speaks up, "You said there were three options Jiraiya?"

Jiraiya pointed to Naruto, "Place it in his son." He says solemnly.

"So I take it," The Hokage starts to say with a sigh while rubbing the bridge of his nose. "That those two were supposed to be option two."

"Hai, Sensei…"

Hokage lets out a sigh while mumbling something along the lines of "I'm too old for this…" because really he is.

"So Minato and Kushina managed to make summoning contracts but without the actual contracts. This is too much."

"Don't think too hard about it Sensei, I can take a look at it. There's still a third one." Jiraiya turns to look at the two servants. "There is the one still in the shed right?"

"Probably. We were unable to get in there." Shirou answers.

"Well that's something for me to get started on. I planned on staying here a few months anyway."

From beside Naruto Cu makes a noise that sounds close to a small growl.

"Don't think this is over," The lancer says, "You've got five years to make up to the boya."

"You don't think I know that?" Jiraiya hisses.

"We do know you know it and we're going to make sure you remember it." The Hound of Ulster says through his teeth, not at all phased at the sannin staring at him. Shirou could see the slits in the lancer's eyes growing thinner.

Shirou knows that Cu is overprotective of Naruto (he is too but he's not going to admit it. Nope). Shirou thinks it's because Cu had a son of his own when he was alive and it must really hit home to the lancer see the blonde child cry. Even though it has nearly been a month he already knows where the lancer's loyalty lies.

"Gentlemen. We are not here to fight." Hokage says sternly.

Cu only huffs with a flare of his nose. Jiraiya makes no movement.

"Hokage-sama. Are done here?" Shirou calls out seeing as the other two men aren't going to say anything else.

"For now yes. I have another important matter to look into." The old man then looks at Naruto with a sad expression. "Make sure he gets a good night's sleep."

"Yes."

Cu picks up Naruto and is out the room before the Hokage finishes his last syllable. Shirou takes his time and stops by the door before looking over his shoulder at Jiraiya.

"You know where we are if you want to pay Naruto a visit. However if he does not wish to see you we won't hesitate to take drastic measures."

He closes the door behind him.

There is a moment of silence as the two sit in the office. The Hokage breaks it.

"Where have I gone wrong?" He says mostly to himself because if he thinks about it he is mostly to blame. Not for the Kyuubi but for Naruto's sake. He could have done so much more but in reality he placed the blame on himself. He tried to make everything peaceful as possible and withheld information from Naruto. Now he's facing the consequences.

"Sensei…"

Hokage shakes his head and his student falls silent. After a moment of thinking he rests his chin on his folded hands.

It's time for change. Yes, and if things needed to change he needed to do it at the root of the problem. Where it would not grow again, he would dig it up and properly  _burn_  it if he has to.

"Jiraiya I have been Hokage for a long time and it has come to my attention that Konoha is no longer at her best anymore."

"Sensei?"

"I've only realized it recently. I feel foolish for being so blind." The Hokage says while standing and turning to fact towards the windows overlooking Konoha. "I have realized that my council is corrupted, and things have been happening behind my back. I tend to do something about it and I would like your help on it."

Jiraiya frowns, "I'm not good at politics sensei."

"I know, you were my student." He ignored the wince Jiraiya gives him. "You are a strong presence of Konoha and I know about your information network."

At this Jiraiya perks up. "Oh? That's familiar territory. If you give me the rundown I should be able to help."

Jiraiya sees his Sensei smirk.

* * *

Naruto wakes up on something soft. It's softer than the floor but lumpier than a bed. He's

also wrapped in something. He realizes it is a jacket, an oversized one and that he is lying on the couch.

He sits up on the couch and rubs his eyes. It's still dark meaning that it is still night or early morning. He does not know why he is on the couch though. He wonders if Cu or Shirou put him there. He doesn't remember staying up to watch t.v. He does not even remember what time it is.

He blinks a few more times, trying to remember what happened-

Oh. Right.

He met his Godfather, Jiraiya.

Naruto does not know what to feel. He does feel a small twist in his stomach though and he slides off the couch, the jacket still wrapped around him. He makes his way down the hall and thinks whether he wants to go to his room or not.

He does not.

Instead he tries to look for Cu and Shirou. He passes his room and goes down the hall to Shirou's room since his was the closest. He doesn't see the light on through the screen door so he knocks.

Nothing.

He goes over to Cu's door and knocks as well. No response. He pouts. Where else could they be. There was outside and he had already walked past the empty kitchen. All that was left was the dojo. So he walks there.

Sure enough, they are in the dojo.

Naruto can hear them talking about something the closer he makes his way to the large room. He was about to slide open the door until it opened for him.

Shirou is the one that opened it and he gives Naruto a small smile. "Oh? You're awake?"

Naruto narrows his eyes, "I don' wanna go back to sleep."

Shirou hums and slides the door open further to let the child in. Naruto eagerly walks in and plops down right next to Cu who ruffles his hair.

"Is that man going to come over soon?" Naruto asks while rubbing his eyes.

"Do you want him to come over?" Cu asks.

Naruto furrows his brow, "Kinda… I mean I want to know more y'know. Cause Jiji wouldn't tell me so maybe I can ask him."

"Hm, then he can come over, as long as you're okay with it." The lancer pats the blonde's hair again and Naruto nods.

"What were you two talkin' 'bout?"

"Things."

Naruto pouts but doesn't question further.

* * *

It has been years since Jiraiya laid eyes on the Namikaze estate.

The first time he saw it was when an overexcited Minato dragged him into the forest to see the house. Jiraiya was a bit impressed at how well hidden it was and good the land around it was.

He barely remembers the inside though. He's only been inside it once and that was because Minato gave him a tour and quickly asked him to keep it a secret because it was a gift for Kushina.

Jiraiya makes a pained smile and shakes his head. No time for that now.

He's at the front the door and is about to raise his hand and knock until the door is slid open. He comes face to face with Emiya Shirou in a cream apron and a skillet in his hand.

"Welcome, breakfast will be done in approximately twenty minutes. I hope you're okay with omelets yes?" Emiya raises an eyebrow.

It takes Jiraiya a good moment to process what had been said to him.

"Uh, yeah. Omelet's fine."

"Hn. Make yourself comfortable and beware of the dog."

Jiraiya doesn't get that last bit but comes in when Shirou leaves and keeps the door open for him.

The room before him is like a living area. There's a tv against one wall and a kotatsu in the middle of the room. Chulainn is seated on the couch a couple of meters from the kotatsu. The blue man gives him a look before going back to surfing the channels.

"Cu, be a nice dog and make him feel welcome."

" **O' I'll give him a wholesome Celtic welcome."**  The other shot back but sat up to make room on the couch.

Shirou rolls his eyes before looking at Jiraiya, "Give him time." Then he's gone into what Jiraiya assumes is the kitchen.

Jiraiya honestly does not know how to take this. He's used to things being straight to the point. He's not used to someone casually opening the door and offering him breakfast when there are serious matters to attend to.

"Boya's in the bathroom. He'll be out in a few. Then I guess Shirou is going to force us to eat and then we'll get down to business." Chulainn says why he continues to flip through channels.

"Boya?"

"Naruto."

"Right," Jiraiya sighs, "There's too much tension in here."

Chulainn snorts before making a grin, canines showing, "Who's fault is that?"

"No fighting!" Shirou hollers from the kitchen. Jiraiya watches as Chulainn rolls his eyes. "Yes mother!" He hollers back and his response is a curse.

Jiraiya raises an eyebrow. What kind of relationship is this?

Jiraiya honestly thinks that these two are insane.

Who in their right fucking mind offers food to ANBU members and threatens to kill them because 'You all need your daily nutrition. I don't care of Jiraiya-san is here, you all are going to eat. You all are still growing men!'

Naruto doesn't react much to the exchange at all. The only thing he does do is stick his tongue out at the ANBU member with the dog masks. Chulainn only snorts at the exchange and tries to snag some food off the boy's plate.

"How long has that been going on."

"Since Naruto came to live with us." Shirou answers as if it is the most normal thing in the world. Like it's just casual conversation to talk about feeding ANBU members on a daily basis.

He isn't sure if Sensei knows about this or not. He's pretty sure if he did knew the old man would not worry too much but seriously.

* * *

"Um, so… uh… I don't know what to say…" Naruto trailed off.

Jiraiya couldn't help but feel a small amount of amusement. "I'll start then gaki. I'm Jiraiya, your godfather. I also taught your father and I was the Hokage's student."

"Really!?"

"Un. I'm one of the Sannin of Konoha. Don't they teach you this stuff in school gaki?"

Naruto huffs, "I don't start until next year." Jiraiya hums.

"Well, I know we got off on the wrong foot and all because of certain things and a misunderstanding. Think we can get along?"

Naruto puts on a show by holding his chin in his hands and humming thoughtfully. Jiraiya tries not to roll his eyes in amusement. After a few seconds of the blonde pacing his stops in front of Jiraiya and grins.

"What are we doing here?" Naruto asks from beside Shirou. "I thought we couldn't go in the shed?"

"That's because we didn't know how to open it Naruto." Shirou answers. "Godfather knows how to. We're about to see what's inside."

Naruto lets out a cry of excitement and Jiraiya ignores Shirou calling him Godfather as he looks over the seals on the doors.

"Did you two start hacking at it with something to try to open it? It has dents everywhere." He asks.

Cu coughs and Shirou looks off to the side.

"There was that nasty storm one year…" Cu says smoothly.

Shirou nods, "Yeah, it was really windy."

Jiraiya chooses to ignore the lies and goes back to the seals.

"Kai." He says firmly and the seals burn off.

"That was underwhelming." Shirou comments and Jiraiya snorts before opening the door. "It's chakra sensitive. It'll only react to certain chakras. Now come on."

There's a lot of dust and the smell of old are papers and scrolls in a corner and in the middle of the floor is a magic circle.

Naruto walks forward but Cu places a hand on the boy's shoulder to keep still.

"This looks familiar to you two?" Jiraiya asks while walking around the circle to the scrolls in the corner. Shirou studies it and Cu looks it over. Naruto looks at the three adults in confusion. What was going on?

"It is indeed a summoning circle." Shirou whispers fact that it was in perfect shape after all these years is a bit alarming though.

Naruto shifts a bit, feeling something in his stomach stir. Maybe he was to go the bathroom or something?

"You okay boya?"

"Un." Naruto holds on the end of Cu's shirt as he answers. "What's that?" He points to the circle.

"A summoning circle gaki." Jiraiya answers.

"Summon… circle…?" The child echoes.

"Boya." Cu catches his attention as he squats down to Naruto's height. "It's about time me and Shirou tell you something."

Naruto looks up at the both of them. "Huh?"

"We aren't exactly humans." Cu says, "We're servants or summons."

"Summons…?"

"Yes," Shirou says, "We were summoned here five years ago through one of those circles." Shirou motions to the circle on the ground and Naruto eyes it for a split second before looking back at Shirou and Cu.

"I don't get it…"

"Gaki," Jiraiya speaks up, "Before you were born. Your parents made these summoning circles right here so if anything would happen to them the summons would take care of you or help. It's like when a ninja forms a summoning contract. Their contract is with you and you are their master."

"EH?!"

* * *

"I thank you all for coming here on short notice." Hokage greets with a nod at all the representatives and heads before him. They greet him back.

"Hokage-sama might I ask why we have been summoned? You do not look like you have slept at all."

He hasn't. He hasn't slept in the past two or three days. He's been at the tower working and he only goes home to shower and eat, but that's irrelevant right now.

"I haven't and I thank you for your concern Shikaku-san."

"Is this about the child again?" Danzo's voice rings clear and honestly Sarutobi thinks he should have brought some type of alcohol for this meeting instead of tea.

"This is about many things Danzo."

"Things like?"

"Konoha and it's representatives." Hokage says. "The matter of Naruto can wait."

There are a few shifts here in there throughout the room but Hokage ignores them.

"It seems I have been kind for far  _too_  long." Hokage starts while looking down at all of them. The atmosphere in the room  _shifts_  and the temperature drops. Hokage does not give them the option to speak up. He motions towards the folders on his desk, stacked high.

"This meeting is to determine the new representatives for the council of Konoha."

The uproar started.

" **SILENCE."**

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage of Konoha- the God of Shinobi- the Professor stood from his seat with a neutral expression. Hands together behind his back, his eyes bore into every single soul in the room.

"If I may, Hokage-sama. I see no need for changes. Might I ask why?" Danzo still chooses to dig deeper and Sarutobi took the pipe out of his mouth.

"Shimura Danzo, what is the purpose of the council- the real council?"

Danzo stiffens, "To help and give advice to the Hokage and make sure that the village's citizens are taken into consideration."

"Good. The council is to help and give advice. Nothing more, nothing less. So far it has been shown to me that there is a lot of disruptive powers as of late. In the end the Hokage makes the final decision."

Sarutobi sits down again, watching them all. "I understand that Konoha has been in a reconstructive period at one time and needed more members. However, now that Konoha has been restored I have come to realize that there are still cracks that need to be sealed. This meeting is to take care of that."

"But Hokage-sama," Koharu Utatane, one of the elders in the village spoke up, "Konoha does not need a change in power does it not? You are a great leader-"

"You misunderstand. I'm not planning to retire, but some of you all might be."

"H-Hokage-sama."

"Some of you have gotten too comfortable." Hokage cuts Koharu off, "And I have realized that things are happening in my village without my say so. Information is leaking, not only that children are going missing for some reason as well. Let me be clear that if anyone is found or seems to be breathing around those subjects I will not hesitate to rid of you myself." He snaps.

Silence, sweet, cold, silence.

"I have already taken into account candidates for certain positions. Uchiha Fugaku."

"Hai Hokage-sama!"

"Since the Uchiha police are regularly exposed to citizen matters I chose you as a representative. I would also like to thank you for your hard work on the cases of the missing children." He hands the Uchiha one stack of folders, "Pass those out and keep one for yourself. They explain how other council members will be elected."

"Hyuuga Hiashi."

"Hai Hokage-sama!"

"Not only do the Hyuuga possess the power I have come to realize that you all have a certain influence on the academy along with the Uchiha?" The old man says with a chilling stare. Hiashi swallows but nod.

"Not only that, thanks to you alls dojutsu it also possible for you all to see chakra coils. It came to my attention a while back that some students have stunted chakra growth and that their pathways are not well developed when they graduate from the academy. You may gather a few more Hyuuga members to make a midterm and end of the year evaluation of all the students at the academy."

"Y-Yes Hokage-sama."

"Yamanaka Inoichi."

"Hai Hokage-sama." The man bowed and Hokage gave him a folder. "From now on instead of the ANBU members getting an evaluation once every other month it shall be once a month. You have great influence over the T&I. This also goes for regular shinobi excluding genin. If they fell to be evaluated they will be interrogated and lose their rank."

"Hai…"

"As for the old council members and elders." Hokage starts after Inoichi scurried to his seat. "It has come to my attention that over time your intentions for the village have been ill."

"Excuse us?!" Danzo shot up. Hokage made no move to rise with him.

"It has come to my attention that Danzo has the most power when it should be divided evenly. Not only that you do things for the ideal image of Konoha. Not Konoha itself. I'm only going to say this once  _Shimura-san_. I know about ROOT, and if you listen carefully to what I have to say you might be able to redeem yourself depending on the choice you make in the future."

Danzo stood still, blood going cold. He took notice of how Sarutobi no longer used his name.

"The council will consist of three members like it always has been. The prime purpose- as you said before- is to help the Hokage govern the village with its inhabitants in mind. Those three members will be selected, however, they must resign after four years of being a member. You three will have a chance to recommend candidates but remember it is up to me to choose.

"Our next meeting will be in one week at this exact time. You all present your candidates. Dismissed."

Once the room was empty Sarutobi stood and walked over to the windows looking over Konoha.

He would make Konoha a better place for Naruto, and the next generations to come.

* * *

Shirou has a feeling that maybe they should have waited to tell Naruto about the contract because he's probably too young to understand.

The five-year-old twists his mouth and scrunches his nose. "But Cu-nii and Shirou-nii are my older brothers."

Cu chuckles, "If that's what you want us to be then that won't change boya. We just need you to understand what we are and you can't go around telling ?"

"Okay!"

"Now Naruto, I need to tell you something." Shirou gains the child's attention, "As our master, you are the reason we can appear like this. You're giving us energy."

"Like chakra?"

"Something like chakra but not exactly. I need you to understand that if anything happens to you and we can't receive energy than we might disappear. I'm saying this because you want to be a shinobi right?"

Naruto nodded.

"Good. We'll probably have to get into this when your older and your attention span is better. For now, that's all."

Jiraiya realizes that Shirou didn't tell the child everything. It's probably for the best.

Anyway.

"I studied the circle." The sannin says while sealing the last scroll into his storage scroll.

"Hn."

"It can still be activated."

There's silence as the servants stiffen.

It's broken by Naruto.

"SO I CAN SUMMON ANOTHER ONE THIS TIME."

"What? Wait-"

"PLEEEEAAAAAASSSSSEEEEE."

Oh, Kami-sama what had they gotten into.

Naruto climbs Shirou- literally- and holds on to his arm. "Please Shirou-nii."

"Naruto, we don't know if you're capable of doing that." More importantly, they don't know what the boy is capable of summoning. What if the servant is too strong? What if it can't be controlled?

"I say let's do it!" Jiraiya pipes up and Naruto cheers.

"Are you an idiot?" Shirou snaps at the sannin. "Cu help me out here!"

"I kinda want to see what happens as well."

…

…

…

"SHIIIRRRROOOOUUUUUU PLLLLLLLEEEEEAAASSSSEEEEEE." Naruto whines and Cu smirks because he already knows the archer is giving in.

"Fine." He hisses.

"YATTA! How do I summon them?"

Jiraiya hums and removes a scroll from his sleeves. "Kushina and Minato left notes, apparently they converted it so that its blood activated gaki. Meaning that you have to bite your thumb and let some blood drip on the seal. If you're worthy then something might happen."

Huh, so not too different from the usual ritual. There's not incantation involved.

"Be careful Naruto, some servants aren't loyal, or mentally stable." He says while cutting his eyes at the Sannin. Jiraiya understands quickly.

Cu summons his lance for safety measure and leads against it. "Go on boya."

"Bite your thumb-good. Place it on the ink, smear it if you have to." Jiraiya instructs.

Naruto places his thumb on the ink and a hum goes through the shed. Shirou has already summoned his twin blades in his hands.

The humming gets louder and the ink begins to glow, Jiraiya tugs Naruto back a bit. From the corner of the Sannin's vision he can see the two servants tense.

Then there's a burst of wind that nearly knocks them over before a pillar of light erupts in the middle of the circle. Something starts to take form and a feminine voice speaks up.

" **Servant. Rider. You must have strange preferences to summon me. Now, are you my master?"**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N:
> 
> YA'LL DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW LONG I'VE WANTED TO GET THIS CHAPTER OUT! I'M JUST NOW GETTING A BREAK BECAUSE I JUST GRADUATED AND SUMMER IS HEEEERRRREEEEEEEE!
> 
> *You guys are going to absolutely hate me in the future. I tell ya now most of my fanfics start out with fluff and then it goes so downhill. Just wait until we get to cannon territory some of you are gonna wanna cut off my hands and I'll deserve it-
> 
> **Ah yes, new servant. She's female and a rider class. My first choice was- believe it or not- Hokusai. Just because she's a foreigner and I wanted her to interact with Jiraiya and those two would make like a joint business off each other. XD She would've been the illustrator to Icha Icha. Hahaha. Not only that she's cute and I thought she would love Naruto.
> 
> **My second choice was going to be Jack the ripper but I thought against it, since there's already a fanfic (that is being updated and not abandoned) that has her in it I thought nah.
> 
> **My third choice was gonna be Francis Drake. Can you guys imagine the amount of shit Drake would get into? Can you? She's such a bro as well! Like Cu level bro! /Sobs/
> 
> Sadly I already made my decisions. The cameos would mostly like happen when the first arc of Naruto comes in (Ya'll know them chunnin exams are going to be a bitch to write).
> 
> Have a nice day.
> 
> Song suggestion: All the stars by Kendrick Lamar


	7. Chapter 7

The first thing she does is lowers herself to the ground and grips her weapons. Her muscles are tense and she lets out a growl because there are two other servants standing before her with their weapons out. Not to mention that the second she spoke a few more people in white masks appeared and look ready to attack. 

 

The man with the long white hair in a ponytail raises a hand and says something that she cannot understand. However, the words seem to make the ones in the white masks relax. The man says something else and they retreat. 

 

The two servants seemed to relax a bit more as well and their weapons disappear. The man with white hair and brown skin held his hands up in a surrendering motion and says something. 

 

**“I do not understand your language.”** She answers. 

 

She says him furrows his brows before he is saying something again and there is a pause. This continues for a few moments until… 

 

**“Do you understand me now?”**

 

**“Yes.”** She straightens, standing at her full height now. 

 

**“So Greek. Forgive me if my pronunciations are wrong. Do you know why you are here?”**

 

**“I was summoned.** ” She answers automatically. That’ the only thing she can think of. 

 

**“Do you know where we are?”**

 

**“No.”**

 

The man sighs.  **“Well, it’s nice to know that your summoning pretty much went the same way as ours, no knowledge whatsoever about this era. Before we continue,”** He motions towards the small blonde child standing next to the man that was speaking before,  **“This is our master, Naruto.”**

 

She raises an eyebrow. This… This small child was able to summon her? Not only that but he was a master of more than one servant? 

 

**“I’m Archer.”** The man motions towards himself, then towards the blue-haired man, **“That’s Lancer.”** Then the man standing next to her- their master.  **“That’s master’s Godfather.”**

 

She considers this and makes her weapons disappear. **“Why couldn’t I understand you before?”**

 

**“This lands language is different. You’ll have to learn it like Lancer had to.”**

 

Rider hums. 

 

**“I take it there is an explanation for this?”**

 

**“Yes. It’ll take a lot of explaining to do.”**

 

**“Well,”** She pushes a lock of long hair over her shoulder, **“Since we are comrades… I am Medusa.”**

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

Sarutobi is too old for this shit. 

 

Seriously he is, he has been through many generations, has fought many things in his life and has lived to be far older than most shinobi. 

 

However, Naruto might just bring the death of this old man!

 

“I don’t remember you saying that you would activate the circle Jiraiya.” Hokage says while rubbing the bridge of his nose. He needs some sake dammit!

 

Jiraiya coughs nervously, “Well when I found out it could be activated it was a bit too tempting to not try it…” 

 

Hokage stares at his student with a deadpan expression before looking towards the others. 

 

Before him is Naruto, Emiya, Chulainn and a woman that Emiya introduced as Medusa. 

 

She’s almost as tall as the two men, her hair is long and pink and her eyes are covered by a scale like mask. She’s wearing something similar to a black dress and an oversized jacket. 

 

“I take it she’s a servant.” 

 

“Hai Jiji!” Naruto says happily from standing in between Chulainn and Emiya. The boy is all smiles and is clearly happy at the fact of managing to summon something left by his parents. 

 

Hokage held in a groan.

 

“She doesn’t understand the language.” Emiya speaks up, “It’ll also take some time for her to get used to the culture here.” He mumbles, watching the rider look around the room from her seat. 

 

Hokage sighs. 

 

“For now, do what is needed to get her accustomed here. I have bigger fish to fry. I take it she is a warrior like yourselves?” At Emiya’s nod, the old man sighed again, “Please makes sure she does not hurt anyone. Jiraiya I need you to stay for a few moments. You all are dismissed.” 

 

Once they were in the hallway she speaks,  **“That was the leader?”**

 

**“Yes,”** Shirou answers,  **“Luckily he’s understanding and knows of our circumstances. Now,”** He claps his hands together and turned to look at her, “ **We’re going to have to teach you a few things about this village. Reading, writing and speaking the language is currently the top priority for obvious reasons.”**

 

She nods and feels small hands tug at hers. She looks down at her master.

 

Said child is beaming up at her and says something before pulling her forward. 

 

~~~~~

 

Surprisingly Medusa learns fast. Like at an inhumane speed that has Shirou wondering if she is a computer or not. He knows she is not human, in fact, she is a goddess but this is just madness. 

 

_ It’s only been three hours.  _ Shirou thought to himself. _ Yet she managed to properly memorize Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. It took Cu three weeks to remember one of them _ . Shirou’s eye twitched as she flew through all the charts and the practice sentences. The pile of done paperwork was piling up while the blank ones were quickly disappearing. 

 

She could already pronounce things to the best of her abilities. Surprisingly she didn’t have that thick of an accent like Cu did (his accent made it hell to figure out what he was saying). 

 

“How’s it going?” Cu pokes his head into the room. Since Shirou is helping Medusa he’s cooking today. 

 

“She’s almost done.” 

 

“For today?” 

 

“No, she’s  _ almost done. _ ” 

 

“Say what?” The Irishman squacked.

  
  


“I have memorized the language and its characters. However, I feel as though my pronunciation might be trouble.” 

 

Shirou snorts, “You’re doing better than he was when he first started when it comes to that.” He ignores the ‘Hey!’ coming from the kitchen. “You’re doing well with verbs and such.” 

 

“Alright,” Cu comes from the kitchen while untying the apron he’s wearing. Naruto runs in the room with what looks like potato chunks on his face. 

 

“We’re having shepherd's pie because we don’t have any fish or chicken left.” 

 

“It’s your turn to shop.” Was all Shirou says as he looked over Medusa’s papers with ease. So far everything is correct. 

 

Cu perks up, “Midnight shopping!” He declares and Shirou has to fight not to roll his eyes. Oh boy. 

 

~~~~~~~

 

A month went by. 

 

Medusa finds herself fitting in with their schedule quite easily. Its weird there is no fighting to the death. There is not an opposing force. Is it just a normal life?

 

Well as normal as living with two men and a child can be. 

  
  


Her master, Naruto is a ‘ray of sunshine’ as she’s heard the lady call him. He’s bright and loud around the people he is used to. Especially around the girls TenTen and Hinata. 

 

She has grown a bit fond of the Lady of the teahouse. Benkei seemed to be the one to help educate Naruto as well. She also helped Medusa when it came to clothing. Lancer and Archer seemed to trust her as well. 

 

Then there is the godfather. 

 

Medusa has come close to beheading him. 

 

After the third time, you would think he could take a hint but no. 

 

The fourth time, Shirou stepped in and threatened to keep the man from visiting altogether because  _ Naruto needs good role models in his life, not an old peeping tom.  _

 

After that, he did seem to be a bit decent but Medusa kept her distance. 

 

Then there were the people in the animal masks. 

 

Archer explained to Medusa that they were guards, which confused her. They were Naruto servants but it seems the animal masks guarded him before they were summoned. They weren’t needed now though, so why keep them?

 

Apparently, Naruto talked to the masked people daily. Especially the one called Dog. He was a frequent visitor in the mornings as well. 

 

Last was the one he called Jiji. 

 

Medusa does not know what to think of the old man Naruto claimed was his grandfather. He seems naturally polite even for a leader that runs a village full of assassins. 

 

She sighs and moves a lock of hair behind her ear. Oh well. 

 

~~~~~~~~

**10 Months later**

  
  


Dog sits at the island counter and watches Shirou cook one of the many omelets for this morning. It is not rare anymore for any of the ANBU to just pop in and chill anymore. 

 

However, for some reason Dog was staring at him very intently. Like watching him like a hawk. 

 

Finally after Shirou fold the omelet and places it on a plate does he address the guard. 

 

“What is it?” 

 

Dog tilts his head to the side, “Has Naruto told you that his birthday is next week.” 

 

All movement in the room seized and Dog and practically hear Shirou’s mind screeching to a halt. The servant's eyes slowly closed and then slowly opened. 

 

“No. He did not. What day next week?” 

 

“Friday.” 

 

“I see.” 

 

Dog gets no further reaction for the archer. 

 

“He’s also going to the academy this year, yes?” 

 

Shirou nods, that reminds him he’s going to have to keep Naruto on a timed schedule now and make lunch for him in the morning as well. Not only that he is going to need more suitable clothes. 

 

Medusa strolls in the kitchen, hair braided and her classes one. (Shirou’s brow twitches as he notices that she has yet again stolen his bedroom shoes). Like every morning she’s reading. She takes her plate off the counter with a soft thanks as goes into the common room. 

 

Dog takes this as his cue to leave and gathers three plates before flickering away. 

 

Hmm, Naruto’s birthday…

 

~~~~~~~~   
  


“OUTRAGEOUS!!” Benkei yelled as she slammed down her sake cup. She knows she might have had one too many but oh well, no one important was here to see her being a little out of character. 

 

Shirou and Cu both flinch a bit. It’s a good thing they told her before the tea house opened. 

 

“Friday you say? That’s in six days! I need at least a two-week notice to prepare for my nephews birthday!” She lightly flicks their noses. 

 

Ah yes, she also claimed Naruto as her nephew some months ago. 

 

The geisha head pouts and crosses her arms in her sleeves. “Oh my, I need to prepare a room and tell they girls-  _ yes _ you are bringing him  _ here _ Friday. Bring Medusa-chan as well and the Hyuuga princess and the Uchiha girl too. It’ll be so fun, we’ll have drinks and we can play the games he likes and the girls would buy him presents-”

  
  


“Benkei-sama, please calm down…” Shirou tried as she continued to list off things. 

 

“Calm down you say? How? Did you two even know it was his birthday next week? You all live together!” 

 

The both winced.

 

Benkei huffs. “Bring him around noon on Friday and tell him to invite whoever he wishes. Now shoo~ I have things to do and you all aren’t going to be working ‘till after his birthday.”

 

“But-” 

 

“NO BUTS!” 

~~~~~~~~~

 

“Oho? At the Teahouse?” Lord Hyuuga tilts his head to the side in question. From beside him, Hinata reads through the invitation. 

 

The Irishman nods, “Not what we planned. Bring princess along and her brother yeah?”

 

“Of course. Do you know what Naruto-kun likes?”

 

“Anything with orange.” Cu deadpans. Lord Hyuuga shakes his head with amusement. 

 

“He will be starting the academy around the time Hinata-chan does yes? I’m sure he would like some training equipment as well.” 

 

Cu hums with a nod. After that’s all said and done he excuses himself and leaves. 

 

~~~~

 

Satsuki holds up the invitation to Itachi with so much proudness that it is just plain adorable.

 

How Shirou managed to get in the Uchiha compound and slip it under their door is a mystery. 

 

Itachi takes the invitation and reads it. He'd have to tell his parents when they get home. They were at a meeting right now. 

 

“I wanna go! I wanna go!” Satsuki it practically bouncing beside him. Itachi places a hand on his little sisters head. “We would have to tell mother and father first.” 

 

Satsuki beams with a nod. 

 

~~~~~~~

 

There’s a knocking on the window. 

 

Hokage turns his head to see Medusa with a blank expression on her face, waiting to be let in. He holds up his hand to let his guards know that it's okay as he walks over to open the window. 

 

Medusa does not come in but instead, she hands him a small card. 

 

“An invitation for Naruto’s birthday for you, Grandfather.” 

 

Hokage gently takes it, “I see, thank him for me?” 

 

She smirks, “I have been told it is a surprise party. Please invite the godfather as well if you see him.” 

 

She jumps, flips mid-air and lands perfectly on a roof.

 

~~~~~~

 

Naruto pouts. 

  
  


Something is going on.

 

Jiji won’t tell him, Benkei-sama won’t tell him, Shirou-nii won’t tell him.

 

It’s been going on for the past five days, Naruto just knows that they are acting weird and he swears Jiraiya is in on it too. 

 

On the sixth day, he decides that enough is enough. 

 

He wakes up early, brushes his teeth and washes his face. Then marches to the kitchen. He’s going to make them tell him what is going on. Maybe they are planning to go somewhere? Or maybe they are hiding a new flavor of ramen from him? 

 

He has to know!!!!!

 

He makes his way to the kitchen, about to confront him until Shirou smiles at him and hands the child a plate. Naruto is pushed toward the table. Before he can say anything Shirou points down towards the food. 

 

‘Happy Birthday Naruto!’ Is written in chocolate syrup on his pancake. 

 

Naruto makes the biggest grin- to the point that it hurts- and digs in. 

 

~~~~~~~~~

 

The day went by too fast. 

 

Like promised, the servants bring the now six-year-old child to the Teahouse. They followed Benkei to the assigned room and she told Naruto to open the door. 

 

Everybody called the surprise and the child just stared. 

 

Cu had to push him into the room. 

 

They all ate and Benkei even brought out a cake for Naruto to cut. After that the geisha girls and Mikos gave Naruto their presents before excusing themselves to head back to work. The servants gave their presents next. Then Satsuki and Hinata (poor lass fainted right in front of everyone when Naruto gave her a hug). Neji gave Naruto some pocket change (to buy ramen). 

 

Ten-Ten came half an hour late and gave him some practice kunai. 

 

An hour later is when Jiraiya and Dog decided to flicker in the middle of them playing monopoly (Lord Hyuuga and Hinata were winning. Poor Cu and Shirou kept landing on their property). Dog gave Naruto a pair of goggles and flickered away. Jiraiya gave Naruto a stuffed frog called Gama-kun.

 

The Hokage slips in without anyone noticing since they are still playing Monopoly (If Lord Hyuuga gets one more hotel someone is throwing the board!) The only person that does realize is Medusa who ends up drinking tea with him as they watch Hyuuga dominated one side of the board. 

 

It takes half an hour before Naruto notices and practically launches himself at the old man and some of the others began to feel a bit embarrassed. (Jiraiya is laughing his ass off). 

 

He gives Naruto his usual box of sweets and acts for a seat in the game.

  
  


Cu is the first one to go bankrupt after that, then Jiraiya, then Satsuki and Shirou.

 

It ends in a three-way tie between Naruto and Hokage, Benkei, and Lord Hyuuga and Hinata. 

  
  
  


**One month later**

  
  


Shirou packs Naruto’s backpack, making sure he has everything. He nods to himself like a proud mother- errr older brother. 

 

Naruto is already done eating and dressed. Medusa and Cu wait for them outside.

 

“Don’t cause trouble, and if someone tries to bully you, you have my permission to kick their ass.” 

 

“What if I don’t wanna kick their ass?”   
  


“Then tell a teacher and don’t say ass in class.” 

They walk him to the academy, Cu gives him a thumbs up and Medusa nods. Shirou nods his head at him. 

  
  


…

  
  
  
  


….

  
  
  


“He’s gonna get in so much trouble isn’t he?” Cu says the thought out loud. 

 

“Yep.” Medusa nods.

 

“Most definitely.” Shirou nods. “Be prepared to come to the school for many reasons. We should choose who’s going first, that being said - _ not it! _ ” And the archer disappears.

 

“Wha-” 

 

“Not it!” Medusa says at the same time and also goes into spirit form. Cu growls, curse the E-Rank luck to hell and back. He’s getting those two later on dammit!

  
  


~~~~~~

 

_ Medusa is scary, especially against Jiraiya-sama. I’ve never seen the man rethink his life and go through twelve emotions in under a minute! _

 

_ Chulainn and Emiya are still the same. I do think it’s nice they threw a birthday party for Naruto. He deserved it.  _

 

_ The only thing that worried me was the Itachi couldn’t make it to the party. He said he would come but apparently got called in for something. ~~(Oh well more cake for me).~~ _

 

_ Also, who knew Lord Hokage could be terrifying while playing Monopoly? I have a feeling if he were a businessman he would be terrifying. _

 

_ Hatake Kakashi  _

 

* * *

  
  


**Omake:**   
  


Naruto hangs upside down on the jungle gym, laughing. Next, to him Satsuki sits at the top with Hinata. Neji is the only one sitting under the jungle gym just in case one of the younger falls. 

 

Honestly, the only reason Neji came along was because his father and Uncle told him to watch after Hinata. Neji just thinks that it is a trick to get him outside instead of training. 

 

“So if Medusa is your older sister…” Satsuki starts.

 

“Uh-huh,” Naruto confirms, swinging upward to right himself. 

 

“... and Cu and Shirou are your big brothers… Who’s the oldest?” 

 

Naruto opens his mouth, closes it, then pouts. “I dunno…” 

 

Neji snorts, “Just find out how old they are. Whoever is older is the oldest.” 

 

Naruto hums and jumps down from the jungle gym and makes a beeline for the adults that around the bench. While he’s asking Hinata starts to play with the sleeve of her jacket. 

 

“I didn’t know Naruto-kun had such a big family…” Now it wasn’t as big as the Hyuuga’s or the Uchiha’s but it’s just that she’s never seen them around Naruto until recently. 

 

Satsuki shrugs, “Maybe they’re from outside the village? Or they had a long mission or something. My nii-san said some shinobi take missions that can last years.”

 

Neji only hums and Naruto runs back over to them. 

 

“So… Uh… They said Medusa-nee is the oldest. ‘But they didn’t give me an exact age.” He pouts. 

 

Neji hums and looks back over to the three adults. 

  
  


Who was currently arguing…

 

Neji sweat drops. What was the big deal about their age anyway? 

 

If only he knew.

  
  


**Omake 2: Head Cannons for this fic**

 

  1. Medusa steals Shirou’s and Cu’s slippers when they aren’t looking.
  2. Naruto hides a stash of cup ramen in his room (Shirou has yet to find it)
  3. Whenever Cu whistles dogs run toward him. He could be anywhere and they. Just. appear. 
  4. If you yell mom anywhere near Shirou he will react. It’s like a second instinct, his mom radar just flips and he is there. 



  
  


~~~~~~~~

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember when I said that there will be chapters that are really long and some really short? Well this is one of the really short chapters.
> 
>  
> 
> This chapter was supposed to have another interlude in it but I will place it in another chapter and placed an omake in this chapter.
> 
>  
> 
> Also, it’s a feel-good chapter because it’s all about to go to shit because we all know what happens when someone turned seven right? Right.
> 
>  
> 
> So basically life caused my absence. We went out of the country a week after my graduation and boy was there no internet. We went to London after that trip and stayed there for a week.
> 
>  
> 
> Also, author-kun is stressed because of school and finding a job ugh. Wish them luck!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the delay. Our internet has been because lightning struck pretty close to our house and we were having a bunch of problems because of it. The reason it took so long was because we live in the country instead of the city, ugh.
> 
> I would also like to bring up the fact that I am using my phone to type this chapter so please feel free to comment if I have more errors than normal.
> 
> Note: Shout out to that one reviewer who said they liked the fact that things just 'nonchalantly' fall into place in this story because they know it's gonna come down in a clusterfuck spiral.

 

* * *

The smell of salt is in the air as the wind blows, ruffling her hair and clothes. It feels good and it's better than being in the forest where the wind doesn't come out much.

She twirls the kunai in her hand as she watches a crab walk by, leaving tiny footprints.

She flicks the kunai.

It hits home, obviously and she's a bit satisfied since this is going to be the first time she's having crab. Ah, if only she could go in the water and see if she can find some squid.

"I see you're enjoying yourself Anko." Her sensei drawls with a somewhat amused expression as she tries to make head or tails of how to cook the crab.

Anko hums. She is used to Orochimaru's weird behavior and comments now. They have been traveling for what- two years now? Yeah, something like that. So she is accustomed to just shrugging off his comments every now and then.

She does not know why sensei decided to suddenly travel toward the coasts. Then again she never really understands most of his decisions. Normally he would give some sort of hint as to why they would suddenly travel off road or away from a village.

She picks the crab up, its still squirming and one of its claws almost pinches her finger.

"It'd be best to boil or steam it," Sensei says while not looking up from what he's writing down in a scroll. He's been doing that a lot lately. She only asked him what he was writing in it once and he had given her one of those creepy closed eyed smiles.

"Alright, what are we doing here anyway sensei?"

"Research," He answers, "There's another crab next to your foot."

Anko scoops it up while rolling her eyes at the vague answer.

Her sensei stops writing and looks towards the ocean, "What have they told you all about Uzushio?"

* * *

Cu thinks that he is bad with kids.

Okay, wait let's rephrase that.

He thinks he is bad when it comes to disciplining children.

Honestly, it's not his fault he's had some weird role models while growing up. Fergus was his adoptive father and Cu was not the only one he looked after at the time. Cu basically spent his childhood years being raised by a bunch of men and when he became a teen he met his teacher. When it came to discipline Fergus didn't try (well he did, Cu was just a hard-headed brat) and his teacher did not hesitate to kick Cu's ass across the Shadowlands and back.

So yeah, he honestly thinks that kicking a child across Konoha is not role model worthy and letting things slide is also a no go.

The reason he even has this on his mind is that he has to go to Naruto's school. Apparently, there was a fight and Naruto was in it.

Don't get him wrong, he's not just gonna jump to conclusions and whip out a belt. Knowing Naruto the kid was probably pushed to his limit by someone. He probably just needs a good talking to and that's what Cu thinks he's bad at. He thinks Shirou is more suited for this but oh well.

So he makes it to the academy and doesn't even have to make it inside because Naruto and some other students are standing outside in the playground area with a teacher.

Cu makes his way over instead and easily hops over the fence, startling a few students, Naruto included.

"Yo," Cu greets and places a hand on Naruto's head, "I'm here for this one."

"Ah," The teacher seems to straighten herself. She looks like a Hyuuga, with short hair and that weird headband over her forehead. She has a frown on her face.

"You must be one of Uzumaki-san's siblings? Good good. He's not in too much trouble, not as much as the older students."

Cu raises an eyebrow.

"As you know there was a fight, and I was told there had to be a meeting and a punishment of some sort so I just made them all run a few laps. Anyway, a few of the older students were picking on Lee-san. The fight was actually started by the older kids and Mitsashi-san was the first to retaliate and the others jumped in," The teacher motions to the girl with twin buns in her hair. Cu recognizes her as TenTen if he remembers correctly.

He also recognizes the two Hyuuga children and the Uchiha girl. Neji's face is unreadable and Hinata looks like she was going to burst into tears. TenTen has a scowl on her face and Satsuki is nursing her jaw.

There are two more other kids, a boy with sunglasses and another boy with a bowl cut and bushy eyebrows.

"The two who started the fight already went home because their parent arrived early and picked them up." The Hyuuga woman explains, "The children won't tell me the details as of why the fight happened, they just told me who started it. Maybe you can help?"

Cu hums and squats down to Naruto's height. The boy's face is screwed up in a pout and he's looking at the ground. Honestly, Cu is not mad or a bit disappointed. If the teacher says someone else started it then it could have been self-defense.

Before Cu can say anything Naruto is already starting.

"So me and Hinata-chan were minding our own business in the hall and then we met Satsuki and then we met TenTen because we were lost and didn't know where to go so she said we could come with her 'cause she'd show us around so we said okay and then these two dicks-for brains-"

"Uzumaki-san!" The teacher scolded,

"That's what Neji-nii-san called them!  _ANYWAY_ \- we're following TenTen and then we meet Neji but these boys were around him and doing something, you know that look Neji makes when he wants to shit on someone- yeah  _THAT_  look, anyway bushy brows was with Neji and we think that those two boys were picking on Bushy Brows so TenTen ran over because there wasn't any teachers around and then one of the boys were doing something with chakra and Neji and Tenten got mad and one of the boys was an Uchiha and tried to burn Bushy Brows and Neji went mad then Tenten got mad 'cause Neji was mad-"

Naruto takes a deep breath and continues,

"So Satsuki got mad because the boy was an Uchiha and said Uchiha's aren't supposed to be like that and the other Uchiha boy punched her in the face and I got mad and hit him and Hinata started crying, Satsuki hit the other boy too!. So Neji got madder and did some hand taps, I don't know what they were but they were pretty cool and I hit the other boy with my notebook- there's blood on it now- ew. Then Fukari-sensei came because the bug kid came and got her. That's it."

_Wow._

During Naruto's talk, Cu had ended up taking a seat on the ground and nodding along with a straight face.

"So some kids were bullying bushy brow," Cu points over to the boy with his arm wrapped up, Naruto nods.

"Bushy brow is Tenten and Neji's friend right?" More nods.

"So when Bushy brow got burned they decided to help?" More nods.

"You all ending going into a brawl because of that?" They all nodded.

Well, at least he knows they'll stick up for one another.

_Still-_

"Alright." Cu stands up.

"A-Alright?!" The teacher squeaks.

"Yep, I can't speak for the rest of 'em but Naruto did a good."

"In a way yes," She teacher frowns, "However I'm not punishing them for the fight I'm punishing them on they went through with it." She shakes her head, "Had I known the full story I would have chewed the Uchiha boys out more thoroughly. That does not excuse you all though-  _wipe those smirks off your faces!_ " She huffs and Cu can see a vein growing on her forehead.

She straightens herself, "Even though they were not entirely in the wrong, fights are against the rules. They will not have out of school suspension like the other two instead they have detention for the rest of the week, besides Lee-san and Hinata-san." She motions towards Bushy brows and the Hyuuga.

Cu hums, he isn't sure what kind of punishment detention is but it seems to do the trick because of the many groans coming from the children.

"Y-You're taking this quite well..." The teacher mumbles.

Cu shrugs, "They owned up to it, right?" The kids nod, "So they'll accept the punishment." Besides, they were sticking up for one another in their own way. Those were the good kind of friends. Friends you need to keep.

When they get home Naruto tells Shirou and Medusa everything.

Medusa only seems a bit amused and Shirou seems to shrug it off as well. However, there is one thing he had a few words about.

"New rule," The Archer starts, "Naruto you can't curse."

"HUH?! I don't curse!"

"You literally said Neji made a face like he wanted to shit on someone." Shirou deadpanned. "You are six, therefore you have no use for profanity."

"I thought you said not to curse now you're adding profanity?"

"Naruto," Medusa looks up from her book, "Cursing is profanity."

Naruto makes an 'O' expression. "But you guys do it," He whined.

"We're adults, and we try not to say it a lot while you're around."

"BUT-BUT you guys say it the other way! I head you and Medusa say ' **Fuck'**  the other day. What does that mean anyway?"

Shirou nearly dropped his skillet and Medusa almost spat out her tea.

Cu is silently laughing on the couch.

"It means nothing!" Shirou hisses. "You are to not repeat that word."

"What about the other ones?"

"Other ones...?"

Thus began the long discussion of what Naruto could and could not say, and by kami do they really curse this much around him? They don't need him picking up such things at a young age not to mention saying them in the Celtic and Greek tongue. They didn't even know the boy was picking up on the words, it was a bit disturbing to the say the least.

* * *

Satsuki scrunches up her face as Itachi holds the ice on her jaw. It feels weird because one way her jaw is numb but if she tries to open it'll hurt a little bit.

"It'll be sore for a few days," Itachi tells her. On the other side of him, their mother is on the phone with their father.

"It doesn't hurt too much?"

"Nuh-uh." It really only hurts when she opens her mouth fully. Besides, she's a big girl- she'll tough it out.

"Alrighty," Itachi places her hand under the ice where his was and pats her head. "I have another mission to get to, be safe." He says a quiet goodbye to their mother and leaves.

Satsuki pouts, with Itachi gone that means that their mother is going to be babying her again. She doesn't like it whenever mother does that.

She hurries and makes her way to her room before her mother can do anything else to her. She doesn't get it, her mother never doted on Itachi like she dotes on her. She let Itachi do whatever he wanted but whenever Satsuki wanted to tag along with her brother her mother would always pull her away for some reason.

She huffs and climbs under the covers.

Neji regrets nothing.

Really he doesn't, he'd do it again if he needed to.

However, the elders think that he should be ashamed of himself and Neji wants to brush them off.

So what? He helped a friend, and he protected Hinata-hime. What was so shameful about that? He was Hinata's protector as well, so what was the problem?

Apparently, the elders are just old men with sticks up their asses, his father's words not his.

However, the more they drill it in his head and the more they berate his father the more he feels ashamed of himself. He doesn't feel regret but shouldn't they be mad at him and not his father? Shouldn't he be the one being punished for his actions? Shouldn't he be the one getting a talking to?

His father comes out of the room with a frown that makes him look like he's aged a good three decades.

Neji feels a pang of guilt in his chest. He forces himself not to twiddle his thumbs as his father approaches him. The man says nothing for a few moments before sighing and placing a hand on his head.

"You did fine Neji," His father says quietly.

Neji scrunches up his face, "They don't think so." It comes out harsher than intended and he winces at the look his father gives him.

"They are the elders of the clan Neji, of course, they would not improve such a rash decision like fighting at the academy. You are supposed to be a good model for the clan-"

"You act as though I walked up and-"

"-Not only that you engaged in a fight with two Uchiha!"

Ah, so that was the problem.

Neji narrows his eyes but keeps them on the ground. His jaw clenches to the point where he feels his teeth start to ache.

"I don't regret it." With that he leaves to his room, not waiting for a dismissal from his father.

Hinata doesn't know what to do.

She's been sitting in her bed for the past hour, just staring at the doors of her room. It's dark but there is still some light coming through her window thanks to the moon.

It's not comforting at all.

She had gotten in trouble. Not by her father, but by the elders. Her father was lenient with her but the elders were always cruel for some reason. They yelled at her for being so weak, for crying instead of sticking up to herself as a true heiress should.

It hurt, it really did, because she knows she's supposed to be strong. She knows she's weak but do they have to rub it in every time?!

She sniffles and wipes the tears off her face before curling up in her covers. She'll try harder from now on.

* * *

Detention is surprisingly not what Naruto expected. He heard some of the older kids talking about how they had to write lines across the chalkboard, how they had to clean the classroom and the bathrooms.

Apparently, Fukari-sensei had other things in mind.

"Alright," The Hyuuga woman starts, "You all are here now, so I'll explain the basics. Detention lasts a full hour, during that time you all are supposed to be disciplined according to the academy rules." She says while setting the timer on her watch.

"To be frank, I do not think you all deserve a punishment, however, I do need some type of physical proof that you all were here. So we're going to tidy up the class. Pick up any paper and trash, wipe the desks down as well."

It doesn't take them long to do as told, honestly, it takes about fifteen minutes. Satsuki and Naruto are the ones to pick up trash off the floor while Neji and TenTen wipe down the desks relatively fast.

Fukari-sensei looks over their work and nods once she's satisfied. "Alright, come sit up front."

The four children did as instructed, sitting at the front row of desks. Fukari sensei sat in front of them on her own desk. The woman gives them a good look over before sighing.

"We've forty-two minutes left in counting and I have tests and assignments to grade. You all are to sit here and be quiet, okay?"

Yeah, big problem.

Naruto is used to moving around a lot. Even during class, he moves. He bounces his leg, taps his foot, sometimes he even grinds his teeth if the teachers tell him to stop moving and that was only during class.

At home, he moves around constantly. Sometimes he helps Shirou cook, sometimes he goes with Cu whenever he has an errand to run, he's always moving unless he's asleep. He can't even sit next to Medusa on the couch without moving some limb on his body every two seconds.

So when Naruto starts the twitch, the two Hyuugas in the room instantly notice.

"Is there something wrong Uzumaki-san?"

Naruto feels a bit embarrassed, "I can't not move." He inwardly cringes at how he said it and Fukari-sense has an amused facial expression.

"Oh? I forgot you're one of the energetic students. Don't you have homework you can be doing?"

This time Naruto physically cringes.

Fukari sensei goes back to her work without a word. Naruto huffs and goes through his backpack, finding the worksheet he was assigned. He pulls it out with a huff and gets to work.

Fifteen minutes in and Naruto is willing to jump off the roof of the academy.

"Is there another problem Uzumaki-san?"

"No…"

"If you do not state it then it might not get resolved."

"Resolved?" Naruto blinks in confusion.

"Solved." TenTen explains while working on her own homework assignment.

Fukari sense is still working, Naruto doesn't know if the woman is expecting a response from him or not.

Satsuki chooses the time to lean over and examine the sheet he was working on. Naruto could see the ugly bruise on her jaw, a dark purple.

"You keep getting those two symbols mixed up." She whispered pointing at what he had written. Naruto raises an eyebrow, "what are you talking about?"

TenTen leans over and re-reads his sentence. "She's right."

Naruto scratches his head. "It's not my fault I don't get it. There's too many characters."

"Not really," Satsuki says and takes out her chart, "These are one's we're using."

Naruto squints at the handwritten chart, "Some of these are different."

"How?" TenTen says, she remembers doing the chart last year. All you had to do was copy the strokes, it was basically busy work.

"Because-Because this one-" Naruto points to the 'Mu' character that's already printed on the chart and then the one Satsuki wrote under it, "Isn't the same."

"But they are…?" TenTen says a bit confused, not at all flinching when Neji popped up beside her to see what the commotion was.

"No it's not!" Naruto whines, "It had this thing here! Satsuki's doesn't have that so it isn't the same!"

"It's not different," Satsuki mumbles, "It's just my handwriting-"

"You're what?" Naruto says completely confused. He remembers Aunt Benkei saying something similar but he forgot about it.

"The reason Uzumaki-san thinks it's different because it is not printed exactly the same," They all flinched when Fukari sensei appeared in front of all them, staring at the papers. "Uzumaki-san, you know this as Mu don't you?" She says while pointing at the printed character.

"Yes…"

"However, when it is handwritten, you get confused because it isn't exactly the same. The problem is that your brain registers it as something else because it's not an exact copy. This might mean that you have good eyesight that takes in the exact details of things."

Naruto blinks.

Fukari-sensei chuckles, "It means that your eyesight is too good, Uzumaki-san. You can spot the fine differences, which is why you're confused."

"Oh," Naruto blushed.

TenTen makes a low whistle. "Wow, never heard of that before." She pats Naruto on the head.

Satsuki hummed, "It's kinda cool, the people in my clan have to use the Sharingan to find stuff like that."

"Hm, that being said, Uzumaki-san," Fukari-sensei starts, "you might want to consider extra practice or tutoring to get used to it. That would probably explain your literature troubles."

Naruto groaned out an 'ok' before going back to work.

"So how was detention?" Medusa asks when she came to walk home with him. Cu and Shirou were working and even though Naruto knew the way back himself she was not going to take any chances of him being attacked.

Naruto hums, "We had to clean the classroom and then Fukari-sense made us do our homework- OH! I also found out that I have good eyesight and that's why I have a bad time reading and writing."

"I see…" Medusa mumbled with a small tilt of her head. That was something worth mentioning to the others.

"Yeah, and Fukari sensei said I have to read more now to get better at it-ugh." The little blonde pouted. Medusa snorted, well now she had a good reason to go the library more than usual.

* * *

Shisui hums, twirling a kunai around his pointer finger as he waits for the rest of the squad. Dog took the north, Weasel took the south.

It's a standard watch mission. There had been whispers about a few shady shadows around the borders of Konoha. Nothing new.

In about half an hour they'll have to change for the night and head back to headquarters to sleep. Then when noon came they'd be back to guarding his favorite attendant. (Read: favorite chef).

Honestly, he doesn't know why the Hokage is drilling them in so hard all of the sudden. It was like a casual slap to the face, a wake-up slap. As if something was coming but they didn't know when. First more evaluations a month, and then a new roster. Yep, put all of them on edge.

Shisui sighs. Above one of his crow summons makes another round of the area. Nothing so far, good. It'll be a smooth night.

One of his crows gives a cry and he stands alert. Damn, he just had to jinx it. Shisui jumps off the branch he was previously occupying and towards its direction. He jumps between trees and comes to a stop before he sees a clearing. He doesn't go to it, too dangerous to be in the open. Not to mention this is the area his crow was circling.

It lands on his shoulder with a small cry as he scans the area. His eyes land on something black against the trunk of a tree. He forces a bit of chakra into his eyes, the sharingan flaring to life to enhance his sight-

What.

_What the hell is that?_

It looks like black sludge. But it's moving and it looks like it's wrapping around the tree and sucking the life out of it. It's pitch black with red like veins and it gives off a noise like it's a void.

Shisui feels a churn in his stomach. He has half a mine to set the thing on fire but he's never seen anything like this before and doesn't know what type of reaction it'll have to fire.

There's a sharp whistle to his left and dog lands on a branch beside him.

"You weren't at the gate. What-"

Shisui points to the clearing below them. Dog looks toward the direction, it's hard to see what type of expression he's wearing. However, it's enough when Dog reaches up behind his mask and Shisui sees the red in his left eye.

"The fuck is  _that_?"

"I don't know. I was hoping you'd know what it was. Do we try to kill it-"

There's a loud explosion and what sounds like the roar of fire from the direction Dog came from.

The black sludge is momentarily forgotten as they race in the direction the explosion came from.

Itachi is shaking.

He knows he's shaking because his teeth or shaking and he can feel the goosebumps on his skin. His eyes hurt and he's pretty sure he's going to have a migraine for the rest of the week because of it.

Tenzou hoists him over his shoulder and jumps to a higher branch, far away from whatever the hell that thing is. Once there he sat down, back against the trunk and Tenzou has a hand on his shoulder.

"Did I get it?"

"I think so." Tenzou reaches in one of his of his pockets and grabs a soldier pill. Before Itachi can protest it's shoved his mouth. He swallows it.

Tenzou looks down at the burning trees, still stiff. Looking for any signs of the black sludge but can only see smoke and flames.

"Dog and Crow are coming," Itachi speaks up. His eyes are closed and he's trying very hard not to rub at them. It's nearly impossible, thankfully Crow and Dog make it there a few seconds later to distract him.

"Report." Dog gains attention.

"We were meeting at the point and saw something. It looked like sludge, had these weird tendrils of something. We were debating to just kill it or leave it. We decided to leave it but was attacked on the way out. It touched Weasel and drained some of his chakra. I managed to trap it with a mokuton jutsu and Weasel set it on fire. I'm not sure if it survived or not. I also gave Weasel a soldier pill."

"Sludge?"

Tenzou nods, "You don't seem surprised...?"

"We saw one earlier, " Crow says while helping Weasel up, "Thing was wrapped around a tree and seemed to be draining it." He turns to the younger, "You okay?"

"Yes. I feel exhausted and have a mild headache."

"When we get back you can take him to the hospital for a check-up while we go to the Hokage. Understand?" They all nodded.

Itachi feels like shit.

He feels tired for some reason, like exhausted. He can barely keep his eyes open and before he knows it he's being carried by his cousin because his legs gave.

Shisui is saying something but he can't hear him right now. The lights of the hospital are too bright and make his eyes hurt-

 _Pull yourself together,_  he tells himself. Which for some reason is not happening like it usually does and that makes alarm bells go off in his head.

"What happened to him?" Someone ask.

"I believe it's chakra exhaustion and the overuse of the sharingan. We gave him a soldier pill but it's too early for the effects to wear off."

Itachi is placed on bed and he feels a prick in his arm soon after. Someone pries his eyes open and flashes a light across them.

"Anbu-san please give us a sigh if you can hear what I am saying." The medic instructs.

Itachi does his best to snap his fingers which results in a pathetic attempt of twitching his fingers.

"He's responsive don't know for how-"

The world turned  _blue_.

For a second, Itachi finally thinks that he's hallucinating and maybe he can finally lose consciousness. Sadly, that's not the case because the world isn't just blue anymore- now he can he see lines-

Then Itachi is dead to the world.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was cut in half because I felt as though there were too many point of view changes.
> 
> I mean if it doesn't bother you guys feel free to tell me and I won't do it again in the future.
> 
> About Naruto''s rambling for explaining the story, I just kind of imagined what a kid would sound like telling a story so yeah- Sorry if you all can't understand it.
> 
> I''m also trying to work on character development here because I plan to 'experiment' since this is a slow build/ slow burn fanfic. I also need a bit help on what to do with Sakura and Ino since Sasuke is now Satsuki (fem sasuke). Believe it or not Sakura was supposed to be introduced in this chapter but I scratched it out in favor of Lee and Shino. Also Anko and Orochimaru were introduced as well. (They're gonna be here for awhile).
> 
> I will admit that I don't know how the education system works in the Naruto world. I'm not sure if Iruka-sense always taught them or not, so I made Fukari Hyuuga, don't worry you guys might like her. If not, eh.


End file.
